One of the big challenges facing the 21st Century Warfighter is power, power needed by all the devices and gadgets he/she needs to fight effectively such as radios, GPS, night vision, sighting equipment, and whatever devices that the military equipment researches think will help in the accomplishing mission. That means that more batteries are needed and that also means a heavier load for the soldier to carry especially if these batteries are of different shapes and sizes.

Now, the U.S. Army are looking into developing a backpack that will be able to recharge the batteries for the devices. Led by Courtney Webster from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), the backpack is called the "Energy Harvesting Backpack" which they are now testing at the Soldier Performance and Equipment Advanced Research, Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

According to Webber The backpack consists of a frame mounted to a standard-issue assault pack that contains a two-spring, rack-and-pinion suspension system that allows it to gently glide up and down as the Soldier is walking or running. The mechanical energy produced by the motion of the backpack recharges the battery.

With the design of having a suspension with the backpack, the motion of the backpack is also controlled as compared to regular backpacks full of books that slam into the back when running.

The test had subjects walking for 10 minutes on a treadmill where they are tested at different speeds, different loads, walking or running, at inclines. At some instances, the walked with the assault pack without the Energy Harvesting Backpack, or with it. Maximal oxygen uptake that is designed to calculate fatigue are measured by another device. Most important of the test is measuring the charge of the battery to find out if the backpack is really effective in generating energy.

One of the problems in the development of the Energy Harvesting Backpack is that it already weighs 15 pounds which already is already significant given that there are other equipment that will be added to the load, depending on the mission. But then if fewer batteries will be carried when it is deemed effective enough to carry on to the field, and with technological breakthroughs in battery technologies, the weight of the batteries will be lessened in future versions. Still, the project will have to go through various hurdles and tests for it to be accepted by the U.S. Army.

All the data generated by the tests done by the ARL will be submitted to the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC). The CERDEC requested ARL to do the testing of the Energy Harvesting Backpack which is a design done in partnership with  Lightning Packs, LLC.

Just imagine a backpack that recharges the batteries that you can use for your AEG while in long weekend Milsim events. You can just lengthen the wire from your AEG to the backpack and all you need to worry is how long your BB supply will last. No need on getting back to the safe zone to have your battery recharged.