Generation of Electricity by Normal Human Movement

描述（由申请人提供）：人类越来越依赖于技术，特别是电子设备。在过去的十年里，电子设备的移动性变得越来越强，人们在城市或荒野中移动时，可以使用医疗设备、蜂窝/卫星电话、笔记本电脑和GPS。目前，所有这些设备使用的电池寿命有限，并增加了相当大的重量。电池寿命有限，重量大，这对救灾人员、急救人员、野外科学家和长期探险的探险者来说尤为重要。这些人经常必须携带沉重的背包（大约80磅），其中大部分重量是更换电池。数百万美元已经投入到开发便携式和可再生的人类能源上，但还没有解决方案。为了解决这个问题，我们开发了一种被动装置，悬载背包，它在行走时提取机械能，然后将其转化为电能。当携带80磅的负载时，个人可以产生超过7w的电力，而当携带40磅的负载时，个人可以产生大约2w的电力。这一点意义重大，因为之前发表的将设备安装在鞋子上的尝试产生的功率减少了约300倍（约20瓦）。我们的背包产生的电可以实时为设备供电，也可以给电池充电。有趣的是，代谢实验表明，产生这种电力只增加了2-3%的代谢率，实际上减少了负重的能量消耗。此外，从人体工程学角度来看，悬挂式背包比标准背包更舒适，因为它减少了对身体的压力，因此应该减少常见的骨科损伤。由于背包每年代表着2.95亿美元的业务，因此发电背包具有巨大的商业价值。为了将“概念验证”推向商业化，还需要额外的创新设计/工程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Humans have become increasingly dependent on technology, particularly electronic devices. In the past decade, electronic devices have become more mobile, enabling people to use medical devices, cellular/satellite phones, laptop computers, and GPS as they move around cities or in the wilderness. At present, all of these devices run off of batteries which have limited lifetimes and add considerable weight to the device. The combination of limited lifetimes and large weight of batteries is particularly crucial to disaster relief workers, first responders, field scientists and explorers on prolonged expeditions. These individuals often must carry heavy packs (> 80 lbs), and much of the weight is replacement batteries. Millions of dollars have gone into developing a portable and renewable human-generated energy source but there has not been a solution. To solve this problem, we developed a passive device, the Suspended-load Backpack, which extracts mechanical energy during walking and then converts it to electricity. While carrying an 80 lb load, individuals can generate in excess of 7 W of electricity, and approximately 2 W with a 40 lb load. This is a significant because previously published attempts with devices fitted in shoes generated ~300-fold less (~20 W). The electricity generated by our backpack can be used to power equipment in real-time, and recharge batteries. Interestingly, metabolic experiments show that generating this electricity increases the metabolic rate by only 2-3%, and actually reduces the energetic cost for carrying a load. Further, carrying the load is ergonomically more comfortable with the Suspended-load Backpack than standard ones because of reduction in forces on the body, and thus should reduce common orthopedic injury. As backpacks represent a $295 million annual business, an electricity-generating backpack has substantial commercial value. Additional innovative design/engineering is necessary to bring the "proof of concept" to commercialization. SPECIFIC AIM 1: Reduce the weight of the Suspended-load electricity-generating backpack. SPECIFIC AIM 2: Make a mathematical/computational model of the electricity-generating backpack. SPECIFIC AIM 3: Develop circuitry to control damping, power portable devices and charge storage devices. There are equally compelling health/societal applications for the device in Developing Countries. A large percentage of the world's population lives off the electrical grid. Because of this, their drinking water is often contaminated with pathogens, they have no routine medical testing, nor access to vaccines. Many portable, low power devices have been developed which can provide a great improvement but what is missing is a small source of electricity. The backpack can provide sufficient power for: sterilizing water with portable UV lamps (SteriPen), help provide requisite refrigeration of vaccines, simple diagnostic tests, and communication devices in the case of emergencies. In Phase II a new, lighter and more efficient prototype will be developed and clinically tested, taking advantage of the improved technologies and understanding developed in Phase I. Electricity independence provided by our electricity-generating backpack is extremely important to disaster relief workers, forest fire fighters, field-scientists, explorers, environmental testers, and some first responders, all of whom who must function off the electric-grid. There are equally compelling health applications in Developing Countries. A large portion of the world population lives their whole lives off the electrical-grid: Hence their drinking water is often contaminated with pathogens, they have no routine medical testing, nor access to vaccines and medicines that must be refrigerated. Many portable, low power devices have been developed, and the backpack can provide the missing small source of electricity for: sterilizing water (UV; SteriPen), helping refrigerate vaccines, simple diagnostic tests, and communications in the case of emergencies.