Power hiking

Walking generates electricity in ‘sprung rucksack’ invention

If you’ve come to depend on all that mobile comms kit, and your natty solar charger has got you addicted to power on demand, then what do you do when you’re headed where the sun don’t shine? US biologist Lawrence Rome has come up with a canny answer - a rucksack that incorporates a motion-driven power device.

Rome’s interest lies in muscles: his main work is on how animals move. But he also started looking at the way a rucksack moves on a hiker’s back. Using a principle akin to wave power generators, he set out to harness this movement by springloading the pack’s cargo compartment on an external frame, and setting up cog wheels to drive a generator as the weight goes up and down.

The rougher the terrain, the more power you get. And, as a bonus, the shock absorber effect makes the pack more comfortable to wear. This in itself could be worth the few extra pounds of weight. The device can generate around 7 watts of electricity, which should be enough to run a mobile phone, night sight glasses and a GPS locator, whether on a field science expedition, a rescue service mission, or a night commando raid. - Roger East

Lawrence Rome, +1 215 898 9915,
lrome@sas.upenn.edu

6 January 2006

Roger East