Development of Footstep Electricity Energy Generating Machine Using Dual Generator

Abstract

Footstep electricity energy generation machine have been seen in most populated country and the different existing machines have various capacity of generated electricity power. The concept and the technology is simply the production of electricity energy by weight which acts on the footsteps. Footstep electricity generation is of three types namely; rack and pinion, piezoelectric method, and fuel and piston method. It was comparatively discovered that the rack and pinion mechanism is more effective, efficient with less cost of operation and maintenance. In the existing rack and pinion method, energy was not adequately harvested from footsteps as a result of many gears, shafts and incorporation of a single generator. This takes time to generate electricity and the output capacity is low in watt. With this motivation, a prototype footstep electricity energy generating machine using dual generators, chains and sprockets was developed. This was designed by considering parameters such as human weights, speed and low cost. For designing the work rack and pinion and human weight were studied to understand the operation. At the end, the machine was fabricated using local materials. The machine upon fabrication was evaluated at ten (10) different human weights of 40, 50, 53, 56, 60, 70, 85, 101, 105, 108 kgs and power of 6.69, 6.949, 3.92, 10.848, 8.29, 8.339, 12.064, 11.349, 11.359 and 11.578 watts, with angular speeds of 5.08, 5.28. 2.98, 8.24, 6.30, 6.33, 9.16, 8.62, 8.63, 9.35 rpm were obtained respectively. The results showed that weight is directly proportional to both power and angular speed. The result also showed that optimal weight for electricity generation occurred at 85kg. Further evaluation showed that any power increment due to addition of weights after this point is of negligible watt. Using a dual generators increase higher electricity energy generation and effective and efficient harvesting of footstep energy. The low cost makes it suitable for both rural and low income earners.