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A Cylindrical Triboelectric Energy Harvester For Capsule Endoscopes, Lejie Liu, Shahrzad Towfighian, Zhanpeng Jin

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Capsule endoscopy is a new technology that has the potential to replace conventional endoscopy in the near future due to its non-invasive nature. A major limitation for their functionality is the limited battery life. We have investigated a triboelectric energyharvester inside a capsule endoscope that can generate power from natural contractions of gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The periodic contacts and separations of two triboelectric materials inside the capsule endoscope create an alternating current that can be used to charge the capsule endoscope battery, which is used for imaging the GI tract. This study presents an analytical closed form solution for the …