Australian Army Invests in Electrical Shirts

Stony Stevenson writes "The Australian Defence Department has injected $4.4 million worth of funding to further Australia's national science agency's (the CSIRO) research into designing clothing which can be used as a self-recharging electrical source on the battlefield. The Defence Department is hoping the technology can be used to replace cumbersome disposable batteries that soldiers must carry on the battlefield. The Flexible Integrated Energy Device (FIED) will be used to store and provide energy over a continuous period of time. It can be charged by either vibration energy harvesting or through plugging into an electrical power point."

Comments

Re:Now say after me

[bestiarosa]

True, but I guess those shirt will harvest energy from body heat the soldiers would have lost anyway and from movements the soldiers would have done anyway. This way, the shirt would only be recycling energy which would've been otherwise lost.

On the other hand, imagine if the battery somehow breaks starting to leak acid all over the guy's skin.

So we're buying NEW stuff now?

[vandan]

I thought our politicians only saw it fit to buy decommissioned US junk, such as 30 year-old helicopters, and the odd fleet of dud tanks and fighter jets. Perhaps this is Howard's idea of renewable resources. Personally, I'd rather just put the grunts put to work in a more economic - imagine how much clean energy we could produce if we took our soldiers from the bloodbaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, and lined them up in a big grid of treadmill generators. We could put a picture of Kylie Minogue in front of them, and maybe a picture of Bin Laden behind her. This would pretty much motivate the lot of them.

Re:So we're buying NEW stuff now?

[moosesocks]

To be perfectly fair, don't you see it as a 'very good thing' that Australia has no *need* for a massive high-tech army?

(At least in my eyes) Australia is fairly well-respected in the international community, and doesn't have any highly lucrative natural resources -- it's also completely surrounded by water. In fact, I'd peg a stable government and an educated populace as being its two greatest assets. You'd be absolutely daft to seriously consider going to war with Australia. You'd have very little to gain, and would provoke a massive international retaliation. (Canada comes to mind as being in a similar boat)

Yes, having a well-trained defensive force is a good idea, considering the corner of the world where Australia's located, but the odds of a land war down under seem extremely remote. (Of course, it does make sense to invest in technologies that allow the military to be smaller but more efficient).

Then again, absurd invasions aren't completely unheard of; Germany did attack Svalbard during WWII. I'm still not sure what they were trying to accomplish with that one....

Re:So we're buying NEW stuff now?

[EnigmaPenguin]

I only really would point out two things.

"and doesn't have any highly lucrative natural resources"
Who would ever want all that oil, gas, coal, bauxite, various other heavy metals, gold, uranium ( of which we have a lot of), diamonds, pearls right? Some people postulate that war will be waged over the worlds resources one day, why not consider that a point when you have all those people screaming about peak oil. Whether you believe it or not, it only takes for the enemy to believe it.

"it's also completely surrounded by water"
Not the best defensible position is it.

Other than that you'd be right, we have an okay standing minus the war in Iraq and it really wouldn't do well for the invader on the world stage. I'll also concede that considering the Indonesian's purchase of military hardware from Russia for the coming decade (This includes a whole range of weaponry that could cause a lot of damage) we could have issues. After the F111 retires our long range bombing is reduced until the joint strike fighter program finishes up. This obviously limits our actions in regards to strategic options and its not as if they wont hear a collins class coming.

It just might be wise to improve our own technology in regards to ground forces, be it for the regular peace keeping or out right war.

Sounds like a great idea, perhaps.

[backbyter]

The extra weight of the clothing is offset by not having to carry the extra batteries. So it shouldn't place anymore weight on the troop. I know it's much more convenient for me to wear a loaded photographers vest than it is to carry the bag. Same weight, but the distribution of that weight on your shoulders feels much better at the end of the day.

My concerns are these.

What's this vest made of? If a trooper takes a bullet through the vest, what type of stuff from the vest is going to follow the bullet into the body?

If this shirt is meant to be worn under armor then what impact does the constraint of being sandwiched between the body and the armor have on the overall effectiveness of the shirt?

If the shirt is meant to be worn over the armor, is there any redundancy to the power generation when the shirt takes a hit? With batteries, the trooper could always ask a buddy for a spare battery. Asking for the shirt from your buddies back, in combat, would probably be looked on negatively.

Re:Sounds like a great idea, perhaps.

[Anonymous Coward]

The shirt probably has a wire coming out of it somewhere, so if they desperately needed the power under fire then they could borrow their buddys' shirt's power, otherwise they'd get a replacement (probably following the same procedure as if a regular battery had conked out).

Much better idea

[Colin Smith]

Build some solar cells into their helmets.

fremen

[rucs_hack]

Sooner or later this kind of tech is going to result in a stilsuit. Hope so anyway, those things are just too cool not to be instantiated.

Seriously though, if we colonise mars, they will be more then interesting, they may well be essential.

Frank Herbert had way more right than people realise. Except for the spice thing, but if I have this right, in his original musings on the story, spice wasn't as important, and it was Stilgar, not Paul Atraides who was to be the major character.

Just finish high school physics?

[briancnorton]

The laws of thermodynamics hold perfectly true, but it's not a simple closed system. This system sounds as if it is harvesting waste energy. (the running that the soldier is already doing) The extra effort exists in the weight of the unit, but since it replaces another, chemical battery system, the tradeoff will likely be negligible.

What happens...

[Nameisyoung007]

If a soldier gets shot? What would typically be a bad flesh wound now has an electric battery system thrown in there as well...

Another feature

[Maljin Jolt]

Shock shirts: soldiers will _always_ obey their orders without any hesitation.

Re:Cant wait till I can get one of these!

[ShieldW0lf]

Having spent some time in the field wearing various uniforms, I have to say, the idea of wearing a bunch of plastic and metal fibers in the field doesn't sound very appealing. It sounds like a recipe for heat exhaustion.

Are other energy sources really so inconvenient that this is justifiable?

Re:Yeah, but...

[timeOday]

Y'know... I think you just invented perpetual motion!

Bull. You almost have to wonder if people should even be taught the laws of thermodynamics, they're so eager to run off and leap to unsupported conclusions. Every single story in any way related to power, somebody refers to the laws of thermodynamics to "prove" it's not a good idea because "the power still has to come from somewhere." I got news for you kids, that doesn't mean all power sources are equally useful, economic, reliable, efficient, or anything else.