Knee Brace Generates Electricity From Walking
Knee Brace Generates Electricity From Walking
Feb. 8, 2008
Research at the University of Michigan has led to a knee brace that captures energy from human movement. This new apparatus can generate enough electricity to charge or use various portable electronics. The brace itself functions like many hand powered but time consuming and exhausting methods, but is implemented much like a flywheel or regenerative braking helps recharge the batteries of new hybrid cars.
Arthur Kuo, author of the paper concerning the mechanism, says: "Regenerative brakes collect the kinetic energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat when a car slows down. This knee brace harvests the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step. There is power to be harvested from various places in the body, and you can use that to generate electricity. The knee is probably the best place." I find it very insightful how much energy the body seems to "waste" in this area. Kuo also says that there may be other locations in the body where energy like this could be harnessed.
The device supposedly has a drastically lower impact and strain on the body; evidence of said energy not being put to use. "The body is clever," Kuo said. "In a lot of places where it could be dissipating energy, it may actually be storing it and getting it back elastically. Your tendons act like springs. In many places, we're not sure whether the energy is really being dissipated or you're just storing it temporarily. We believe that when you're slowing down the knee at the end of swinging the leg, most of that energy normally is just wasted." Kuo suggested that this proof of concept could be adapted and built into many other functional ideas such as soldiers and hikers who are far from the grid, and powering internal devices such as pacemakers.
article
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207140751.htm
video
http://gizmodo.com/354097/first-video-of-electricity+generating-knee-brace
Nick Sears VTPP 435-501
Feb. 8, 2008
Research at the University of Michigan has led to a knee brace that captures energy from human movement. This new apparatus can generate enough electricity to charge or use various portable electronics. The brace itself functions like many hand powered but time consuming and exhausting methods, but is implemented much like a flywheel or regenerative braking helps recharge the batteries of new hybrid cars.
Arthur Kuo, author of the paper concerning the mechanism, says: "Regenerative brakes collect the kinetic energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat when a car slows down. This knee brace harvests the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step. There is power to be harvested from various places in the body, and you can use that to generate electricity. The knee is probably the best place." I find it very insightful how much energy the body seems to "waste" in this area. Kuo also says that there may be other locations in the body where energy like this could be harnessed.
The device supposedly has a drastically lower impact and strain on the body; evidence of said energy not being put to use. "The body is clever," Kuo said. "In a lot of places where it could be dissipating energy, it may actually be storing it and getting it back elastically. Your tendons act like springs. In many places, we're not sure whether the energy is really being dissipated or you're just storing it temporarily. We believe that when you're slowing down the knee at the end of swinging the leg, most of that energy normally is just wasted." Kuo suggested that this proof of concept could be adapted and built into many other functional ideas such as soldiers and hikers who are far from the grid, and powering internal devices such as pacemakers.
article
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207140751.htm
video
http://gizmodo.com/354097/first-video-of-electricity+generating-knee-brace
Nick Sears VTPP 435-501
posted by NSears at 9:02 PM
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