Demonstrating Sustainflatable: Harvesting, Storing and Utilizing Ambient Energy for Pneumatic Morphing Interfaces

While the majority of pneumatic interfaces are powered and controlled by traditional electric pumps and valves, alternative sustainable energy harnessing technology has been attracting attention. This paper presents a novel solution to this challenge with the development of the Sustainflatable system, a self-sustaining pneumatic system that can harvest renewable energy sources such as wind, waterflow, moisture, and sunlight, convert the energy into compressed air, and store it for later use in a programmable and intelligent way. The system is completely electronic-free, incorporating customized energy harvesting pumps, storage units with variable volume-pressure characteristics, and tailored valves that operate autonomously. Additionally, the paper provides a design tool to guide the development of the system and includes several environmental applications to showcase its capabilities.