In the recent years triboelectric energy harvesting has gained a lot of research attention, and numerous triboelectric harvester designs have been proposed. We introduce a novel triboelectric energy harvesting architecture, where animal hair is used as the active material with a high positive charge affinity. To induce the triboelectric effect, animal hair is then brought into contact with polytetrafluoroethylene which in turn has a high negative charge affinity. In our approach, the electrodes are built as an array of individual charge collecting pins, which protrude into and interweave with the animal hair and skin and act as the net charge collector. The generators are built with two different approaches: a) by using 3D-printed structures with miniature electrode arrays and b) by using conductive fabrics arranged in a specific laminated structure. These are then tested in the laboratory in interaction with different animal hair materials with a novel methodology based on using a robotic manipulator test bed.
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