Implementation of an Energy Harvester Swing Embedded with Internet of Things (IoT) Monitoring Technology

Conversion of mechanical energy to electrical energy is one of the common natural processes in producing useful energy. In this paper, an energy harvesting swing was designed and tested to utilize waste energy from human motion. The swing consists of a DC generator and pulley system that is integrated with IoT technology for wireless monitoring purposes. Several measured parameters were used to evaluate the performance of the system which includes voltage, current, and power. Gathered energy will be stored in a battery for future use like low voltage lighting purposes and charging mobile phones. A charge controller was designed to effectively charge the battery by adding a buck-boost converter. The testing was conducted in a controlled environment with people weigh between 25kg to 62kg. From different tests made, the DC generator was able to produce a voltage up to 15V from the swinging action if the swing on a bi-directional way and was able to take the input which is the bu Open circuit voltage was able to determine and it ranges from 6.82V from a user with a weight of 25kg and 10.52V from a person with a weight of 62kg. The maximum recorded loaded voltage and power delivered are 15.72 V and 1.35 W respectively. The maximum charging current accumulated when connected to the battery is 423 mA.