[Editors] MIT shock absorber increases fuel economy

[Elizabeth Thomson]

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More power from bumps in the road
--MIT students develop energy-harvesting shock absorbers
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For Immediate Release
MONDAY, FEB. 9, 2009

Contact: Elizabeth A. Thomson, MIT News Office
E: thomson at mit.edu, T: 617-258-5402

Photo Available

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--A team of MIT undergraduate students has invented a  
shock absorber that harnesses energy from small bumps in the road,  
generating electricity while it smoothes the ride more effectively  
than conventional shocks. The students hope to initially find  
customers among companies that operate large fleets of heavy vehicles.  
They have already drawn interest from the U.S. military and several  
truck manufacturers.

Senior Shakeel Avadhany and his teammates say they can produce up to a  
10 percent improvement in overall vehicle fuel efficiency by using the  
regenerative shock absorbers. The company that produces Humvees for  
the army, and is currently working on development of the next- 
generation version of the all-purpose vehicle, is interested enough to  
have loaned them a vehicle for testing purposes.

The project came about because “we wanted to figure out where energy  
is being wasted in a vehicle,” senior Zack Anderson explains. Some  
hybrid cars already do a good job of recovering the energy from  
braking, so the team looked elsewhere, and quickly homed in on the  
suspension.

They began by renting a variety of different car models, outfitting  
the suspension with sensors to determine the energy potential, and  
driving around with a laptop computer recording the sensor data. Their  
tests showed “a significant amount of energy” was being wasted in  
conventional suspension systems, Anderson says, “especially for heavy  
vehicles.”

Once they realized the possibilities, the students set about building  
a prototype system to harness the wasted power. Their prototype shock  
absorbers use a hydraulic system that forces fluid through a turbine  
attached to a generator. The system is controlled by an active  
electronic system that optimizes the damping, providing a smoother  
ride than conventional shocks while generating electricity to recharge  
the batteries or operate electrical equipment.

In their testing so far, the students found that in a 6-shock heavy  
truck, each shock absorber could generate up to an average of 1 kW on  
a standard road — enough power to completely displace the large  
alternator load in heavy trucks and military vehicles, and in some  
cases even run accessory devices such as hybrid trailer refrigeration  
units.

They filed for a patent last year and formed a company, called Levant  
Power Corp., to develop and commercialize the product. They are  
currently doing a series of tests with their converted Humvee to  
optimize the system’s efficiency. They hope their technology will help  
give an edge to the military vehicle company in securing the expected  
$40 billion contract for the new army vehicle called the Joint Light  
Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV.

“They see it as something that’s going to be a differentiator” in the  
quest for that lucrative contract, says Avadhany. He adds, “it is a  
completely new paradigm of damping.”

“This is a disruptive technology,” Anderson says. “It’s a game-changer.”

“Simply put — we want this technology on every heavy-truck, military  
vehicle and consumer hybrid on the road,” Avadhany says.

The team has received help from MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, and  
has been advised by Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics  
in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and founder of  
A123 Systems, a supplier of high-power lithium-ion batteries.

Not only would improved fuel efficiency be a big plus for the army by  
requiring less stockpiling and transportation of fuel into the war  
zone, but the better ride produced by the actively controlled shock  
absorbers makes for safer handling, the students say. “If it’s a  
smoother ride, you can go over the terrain faster,” says Anderson.

The new shocks also have a fail-safe feature: If the electronics fail  
for any reason, the system simply acts like a regular shock absorber.

The group, which also includes senior Zachary Jackowski and alumni  
Paul Abel ’08, Ryan Bavetta ’07 and Vladimir Tarasov ’08, plans to  
have a final, fine-tuned version of the device ready this summer. Then  
they will start talking to potential big customers. For example, they  
have calculated that a company such as Wal-Mart could save $13 million  
a year in fuel costs by converting its fleet of trucks.

--END--


Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office
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