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

heh.

[apodyopsis]

Thats great, now they just need to give out a load of free pin ups pics so they can all get to work cranking up a good charge to power their gear.

Now say after me

[bakuun]

The first law of thermodynamics states: "The increase in the internal energy of a system is equal to the amount of energy added by heating the system, minus the amount lost as a result of the work done by the system on its surroundings".

This means that while it is perfectly possible in theory for soldiers to charge batteries by running around, they will have to exert that extra energy themselves. I doubt that any soldiers (already heavily laden with weapons, body-armour and other gear) will want to wear suit that requires more energy from you for movements than normal suits.

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.

Re:Now say after me

[psxman]

imagine if the battery somehow breaks starting to leak acid all over the guy's skin. ... He'd become a superhero?

Styling

[Edgyboy]

Are they going to look like Dynamo from the movie ''Running man''?
If not, I'm not interested.

Yeah, but...

[amake]

...if [the extra exertion required to charge this shirt] is less than or equal to [the energy needed to haul around those batteries the shirt will be replacing], then it's a net win. In fact, even if the shirt requires more exertion, it might still be worth it not to have to worry, "Do I have my batteries with me today?" "Are my batteries charged?"

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.

Surely FRIED...

[casley]

Come on... Flexible Rechargeable Integrated Energy Device is much better. I'd wear a fried shirt - wouldn't you?

Re:Just finish high school physics?

[CastrTroy]

But they have to run regardless of which system they have used. They are actually replacing heavy non-rechargable batteries, which may run out, with this new system, which probably weighs about the same, but provides much more reliable power.