Whisk-inspired Motion Converter for Ocean Wave Energy Harvesting

Inspired by hand push whisk blenders that are widely used in the kitchen, we here propose an energy harvester that enables conversion of low-frequency translational vibration to high-speed rotations and further generates electricity via the electromagnetic effect. The whisk-inspired energy harvester (W-EH) is composed of an internal thread sleeve, an external thread driving shaft, a spring, and a buoy. Compared with transmission approaches used by electromagnetic power generators, the proposed design has the superiority of low cost, ultra-low operation frequency (lower than 1 Hz), and high power output. Tests in water indicate that the normalized power density is 300% higher than the state of the art. Excited by mimicking ocean waves at 1.5 Hz, the W-EH prototype generates a maximum power of 64.4 milliwatts and succeeds in lighting up 115 LEDs simultaneously, which power is enough for continuous operations of most wireless sensors.