SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Lightning Packs proposes a fundamental enhancement of its patented electricity generating backpack technology to address two major problems/opportunities for the dismounted Air Force Special Warfare operators: 1) The ever-growing need for reliable and continuous electrical power in austere environments for radios computers, and other essential electrical devices including drones and robots. 2) The physical burden of carrying heavy rucksacks often filled with batteries. AFSW operators provide the perfect use-case for this technology. 1) AFSW use the most energy of any of the services (all carry the power draining PRC 117 G radio), 2) AFSW have the opportunity to generate the most energy with our Electric-SL-Pack (they always carry their rucksacks) and 3) AFSW carry the heaviest loads for the longest times and hence all suffer from musculoskeletal injuries which would be helped by the ergonomic benefits of SL-Packs (65% reduction in impact forces). LP's rucksack generates electricity during walking by decoupling the load from the user. The load (attached to the “moving frame”) is suspended from the “fixed frame” (attached to the operator through the harness) via a spring. A generator and rack and pinion device harvest electricity from the relative motion of the two frames. Our original invention increased power output by 1000-fold over previous devices (20 Watts vs 20 milliWatts). The new system will undergo a transformational improvement. We will develop a novel adaptive controller which will impose the correct damping coefficient with the walking speed and payload of the rucksack to optimize the electrical power output and ergonomics. In addition to a discrete component solution to optimize power output we will also examine a microprocessor-based Artificial Intelligence approach.
