Self-powered, hybrid, multifunctional sensor for a human biomechanical monitoring device

For personal and daily activities, it is highly desirable to collect energy from multiple sources, not only for charging personal electronics but also for charging devices that may in the future sense and transmit information for healthcare and biomedical applications. In particular, hybridization of triboelectric and piezoelectric energy-harvesting generators with lightweight components and relatively simple structures have shown promise in self-powered sensors. Here, we present a self-powered multifunctional sensor (SPMS) based on hybridization with a novel design of a piezoelectrically curved spacer that functions concurrently with a zigzag shaped triboelectric harvester for a human biomechanical monitoring device. The optimized SPMS had an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 103 V, short-circuit current (ISC) of 302 µA, load of 100 kΩ, and maximum average power output of 38 mW under the operational processes of compression/deformation/touch/release. To maximize the new sensor’s usage as a gait sensor that can detect and monitor human motion characteristics in rehabilitation circumstances, the deep learning long short-term memory (LSTM) model was developed with an accuracy of the personal sequence gait SPMS signal recognition of 81.8%.