Adapted from ACS Nano 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c07498
A backpack fitted with shock absorbers that generate electricity is easier to carry and can power LEDs and other devices.
The bag is suspended on sliding rails that allow it to move up and down with a pair of rubber ropes on a pulley system, acting like a car’s suspension to reduce the impact of the backpack on the wearer as they walk. This reduces the amount of force generated by the contents of the pack jiggling about by around 21 per cent.
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“When we are walking, the mass centre of the body moves up and down,” says Jia Cheng of Tsinghua University, China, who developed the prototype with his colleagues. An ordinary backpack moves with this mass centre, but the pulley system cancels that motion out, then uses the relative movement between the bag and the body to power a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that converts mechanical energy into electricity.