RESEARCH, DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF BISTABLE WATERBOMB ORIGAMI MECHANISM TO DETECT RESPONSE FREQUENCY FOR ENERGY HARVESTING

Abstract

This paper describes an energy harvesting device based on the oscillation of the bistable waterbomb origami mechanism through piezoelectric energy conversion. This device is capable of harnessing broadband energy from low frequency ambient vibrations. This design uses the stability inherent in the waterbomb origami structure to increase its frequency response bandwidth. Folding along the pattern creates folds of the origami mechanism that can facilitate large bending distortions from which to find the appropriate frequency response. The compact size and light weight of the origami mechanism make it convenient for integration into different hosts subject to vibration. The performance of the origami waterbomb mechanism was tested under external excitation with different vibration intensities such as 0.1mm, 0.5mm and 1mm. The Runge-Kutta quaternary algorithm in Matlab is used to solve problems of finding initial values in a nonlinear system. The experimental and analytical results in Malab were compared and the results differed by about 5%.