Wearable Battery Charging
Bionic Power [website], headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, manufactures a wearable technology for charging batteries. The company is focused on developing its PowerWalk Kinetic Energy Harvester for military use and began multi-unit field trials with the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and Canadian Forces this year. [Photo Gallery]
In the future, management predicts its walk-recharge technology being used in disaster zones and remote work sites, and by consumers in recreational, emergency preparedness and backup applications.
The device is designed to generate electricity from the natural action of walking in much the same way regenerative braking works in hybrid cars. With every stride, the harvester's on-board microprocessors analyze the wearer's gait to determine precisely when to generate maximum power with the least amount of effort.
The PowerWalk's gearbox converts the knee's rotational speed to a higher speed for efficient power generation and a generator converts the mechanical power produced into electrical power. A state-of-the-art power-conversion circuit then converts the electricity to recharge Li-ion or NiMH batteries.
Milestones
December 11th, 2017 - Bionic Power has received a contract valued at Cdn$1.16 million, under the Government of Canada's Build in Canada Innovation Program, to supply low-volume production units of its PowerWalk Kinetic Energy Harvester to the Director of Land Requirements (DLR) and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) for field testing with the Canadian Armed Forces. [Link]
October 28th, '18 news segment video: Link
Aug 1st, '16 Bloomberg article Mobile Phone Dead? Take a Hike to Recharge [Link]
May 26th, '16 - Bionic Power Inc. has received a contract valued at US$1.25 million from the Office of the Secretary of Defense [Link]
June 18th, '15: Bionic Power Inc. signs a US$1.27 million contract extension with the U.S. Army [Link]
Sept 21st, '12: Bionic Power secures three contracts with the United States Army, the Canadian Department of Defence and Canada's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [Link]