| Bio | 
| Earlier Version |
| Poster |
| Paper | 
| MIT Award |
Nicholas Barry,
Jeremy Spruce, Walter Velasquez
United States Military Academy
Subject Listing - Engineering: Electrical
Advisor: Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Shay, Lieutenant Colonel Glen P. Dudevoir, Lieutenant Colonel George Nowak
Thursday, Poster Session 1, Presentation Kiosk 23 B, Health & Fitness Center
BATTERY SCAVENGER AND RECHARGE DEVICE
Our device is a battery charger that extracts residual charge from disposable batteries and transfers the energy to a rechargeable battery. Most batteries currently used by soldiers are disposable, which presents re-supply and disposal challenges. All of the rechargeable battery systems currently in use need to be plugged into AC outlets or use solar cells, which are not always available to soldiers. There are no systems currently available to scavenge residual charge from nearly depleted batteries. Our device solves these problems.
When primary batteries drop below a cretin threshold voltage, they are used up and normally thrown away. The device uses these "dead" batteries to charge one rechargeable battery. This energy would normally be thrown away. The device takes three dead AA batteries and charges one AA rechargeable battery in approximately 24 hours. It is able to transfer up to 90% of the residual energy from the primary batteries to the rechargeable battery. The transfer is conducted at a very high efficiency of 70% using a high-frequency synchronous step down DC-DC converter. It features an automatic temperatures safety cut off as well as a weatherproof casing and a built in current cut off to prevent circuit damage.
This project was specifically designed for military use, but is not limited to it. The device is easy to use, compact, and weighs ~50g unloaded. The soldiers can take this device on missions along with the rechargeable batteries. This reduces the amount of battery weight carried by soldiers. Additionally it helps alleviate the problem of disposing these batteries in a field environment and reduces the burden of battery re-supply.
Advisor: Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Shay, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY
Advisor: Lieutenant Colonel Glen P. Dudevoir, Ph.D., Retired, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY
Advisor: Lieutenant Colonel George Nowak, Ph.D., Retired, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY