A Bio-Inspired Starfish TENG Architecture for Ocean Wave Energy Harvesting:CAD-Based Modeling and Design

Ocean wave energy is a promising source of renewable and low-cost clean energy; however, efficient harvesting under low-frequency excitation remains a significant challenge for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). In this work, a bio-inspired starfish triboelectric nanogenerator (SF-TENG) is proposed to enhance energy capture through a radially distributed architecture. The starfish-inspired geometry enables symmetric force distribution, multi-directional wave interaction, and parallel integration of multiple TENG units along the radial arms, leading to improved contact-separation efficiency and scalable power aggregation. A computer-Aided design (CAD) framework is developed to optimize the geometric arrangement and sizing of the TENG units. Furthermore, a spring-mass model is utilized to analyze system dynamics and maximize relative displacement, with optimal parameters identified for effective mass and stiffness. Experimental validation under low-frequency excitation representative of ocean wave conditions demonstrates that the proposed configuration improves energy harvesting performance. The results highlight the effectiveness of the radial architecture for scalable and stable ocean energy harvesting.