Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
According to Pavegen Systems, it's not only patents on the soles of your shoes, it’s POWER! Power to light up the world, thousands of footsteps at a time, every day!
Pavegen Systems is a British company that manufactures pavement tiles designed to harvest the kinetic energy of pedestrian footsteps and/or vehicle traffic, in view of transforming this energy into electricity used for street lamps and buildings. Technically, the invention consists in capturing kinetic energy in the form of linear motion and translating it to rotational movement suitable for driving the rotor of an electric generator.
Beyond generating about 2.1 watts per hour of energy in high pedestrian traffic areas (or 20 seconds of light with each footstep), the Pavegen Systems tiles also become part of the Internet of Things (IoT), creating data for use in marketing, for transportation and in municipalities. “It’s knowing where people are” according to one of the inventors, Laurence Kemball-Cook, CEO and Founder of Pavegen Systems. It is also knowing what people do, when for example the tiles installed in a fitness center are connected to mobile devices, in view of providing various sorts of health fitness feedback to users, considering the number of their steps.
In the future, Pavegen Systems intend to produce tiles to pave roads and harvest the kinetic energy of vehicle traffic. But this is apparently more difficult, considering the tremendous traction forces of heavyweight traffic, and the resistance of the materials required to pave roads.
This real and sparkling clean, green technology, designed for the 21st-century urban center, was awarded the SXSW™ 2017 Interactive Innovation Award in the Smart Cities category.
This invention was disclosed in the following patent family:
- WO2011138585 (A1) ― 2011-11-10 - Energy harvesting
- US2013068047 (A1) ― 2013-03-21 - Energy harvesting
- US8736088 (B2) ― 2014-05-27 - Energy harvesting
- EP2567091 (B1) ― 2017-03-29 - Energy harvesting
- EP2567091 (A1) ― 2013-03-13 - Energy harvesting
- BR112012029524 (A2) ― 2016-12-06 - Energy harvesting
- AU2011249636 (B2) ― 2014-07-10 - Energy harvesting
- AU2011249636 (A1) ― 2012-11-22 - Energy harvesting
- CN102906422 (A) ― 2013-01-30 - Energy harvesting
- CN102906422 (B) ― 2015-08-19 - Energy harvesting
The abstract of this invention is included below as well as a patent figure drawing of the Pavegen systems motion converter.
[Abstract - US2013068047 & Family]The present application describes techniques for the harvesting of kinetic energy from the movement of people and/or vehicles. A motion converter is discussed which converts linear progression caused by traffic-related impulse forces, to be converted to rotational motion for driving the rotor of an electricity generator. An assembly for harvesting energy including the motion converter and a floor unit are also described
References
Pavegen Systems
SXSW™ 2017 (South by SouthWest)
2 comments:
Amazing, wonderful, innovative and brilliant. I must say, your work and plans and idea is just superb. I never thought that my footstep can contribute in producing the electricity for street lights. Looking forward to updates in this work.
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