Academic Report: Energy Harvesting During Human Walking:
Biomechanics and Device Design
Speaker: Dr. Qingguo Li, Dept. of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston ON, Canada
Time: 2014.06.18 10:00 AM
Location: The Meeting Room On Forth Floor of Hydraulic Building in Yuquan
Abstract:
Humans are a rich source of energy. Biomechanical energy harvesting—generating electricity from people during daily activities—is a promising alternative to batteries for powering increasingly sophisticated portable devices. Effectively harvesting energy from walking requires understanding of walking biomechanics and physiology as well as engineering innovations. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss the development of two energy harvesting devices: a knee-mounted energy harvester and an energy harvesting backpack. It will include human walking biomechanics, mechanical system design, human experimental results.
In the second part of the talk, I will briefly discuss our recent development on inertial/magnetic sensor-based gait parameter estimation methods.
Brief Bio:
Dr. Li earned Bachelors and Master Degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University (Xi'an, China), and Ph.D. in Engineering (robotics) from Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada, 2006. His doctoral work was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal, the most prestigious award for graduate students in Canada. After graduation, Dr. Li did his postdoctoral work at the school of Kinesiology at SFU. His postdoctoral work on knee-mounted energy harvester has been featured as a peer-reviewed article in the journal of Science . Dr. Li was an inventor of four US patents and the invention on energy harvester has been selected as one of the 50 most important inventions of the year 2008 by the Time magazine. Dr. Li is a co-founder of an energy harvesting R&D company, Bionic Power Inc. Dr. Li joined Queen's Mechanical and Material Engineering Department in 2009 and currently is an associated professor. His newly invented energy harvesting backpack has enabled another company in Canada. His current research includes developing energy efficient robotic devices for walking assistance and energy harvesting, as well as wearable sensor technology for human movement analysis.