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Science 9 September 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5741, pp. 1686 - 1687
DOI: 10.1126/science.1118058
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Perspectives

BIOPHYSICS:
Harvesting Energy by Improving the Economy of Human Walking

Arthur D. Kuo

Mobile power sources such as batteries often add great additional weight to a backpacker's load. As a result, there is great interest in harvesting electrical power from the energy expended during walking in a variety of situations. In his Perspective, Kuo discusses results reported in the same issue by Rome et al., in which a backpack with a spring-loaded weight was found to permit generation of electrical power with unexpected efficiency. Analysis of the biomechanics of walking indicates that the oscillating payload enables generation of useful amounts of power while costing less metabolic energy than expected.

The author is in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125, USA. E-mail: artkuo{at}umich.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Biomechanical Energy Harvesting: Generating Electricity During Walking with Minimal User Effort.
J. M. Donelan, Q. Li, V. Naing, J. A. Hoffer, D. J. Weber, and A. D. Kuo (2008)
Science 319, 807-810
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)