Prototypes of a field disruption energy harvester

Energy harvesting from vibrations offers a prevailing nontraditional energy source. We introduce a novel electromagnetic transduction mechanism that can be used to harvest lowfrequency vibrations. The mechanism induces a current in a coil by disrupting the electromagnetic field around the coil. The harvester is composed of a coil wound around track and surrounded by a magnetic field. The coil and magnetic field source remain stationary while a ferromagnetic ball material moves freely along the track cutting the field lines, disrupting the magnetic field, and inducing current in the coil. We present a prototype and experiments validating our energy harvesting mechanism as well as a model for the energy harvester. We find that our harvester can generate as much as 2mV and 21 μW from base vibrations of 0:9 g amplitude. Our harvester demonstrates low-frequency harvesting with a center frequency as low as 9:4 Hz and a 3db harvesting bandwidth as wide as 5:8 Hz.