Statistical model for an energy harvesting system in human powered applications

Abstract

Light fixtures are the most used systems to reduce accident rates by bicycle users, however these are highly dependent from battery or rechargeable home-connected systems. An energy harvesting system eliminates the use of alkaline batteries, by take advantage of the human movement, transforming it into electrical energy and use it in a lighting preventive system. This paper shows how an experimental design is applied, in order to obtain a statistical model equation of the complete energy harvesting system. The model allows to predict the system performance and yield the parameters for an optimized prototype that increase the amount of energy harvested. The model was validated by the comparison of model information against the data from a new prototype.