Vision
Current Status
Problems
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Current Status

The functionality and performance of devices that enhance autonomous human mobility, monitoring, and communication are growing rapidly, and power sources to energize these mobile systems are critical to supporting this growth. Unfortunately, the methods available for powering these devices are not equally advanced. Personal autonomy, through portable networks, computation and communication, hand-held or hand-launched robotic devices, artificial organs, and exoskeletal systems, still requires new compact power sources.

Even though current technology fails to deliver sufficient energy and power density in the size needed for autonomy.

Figure 1. shows three promising examples of power sources (circled in black) close to achieving PPS power demands:
1. model airplane engines
2. hummingbird metabolism
3. fuel cells

These three motivate the thermochemical, biochemical, and electrochemical power production strategies to be developed and hybridized in the PPS.
1. Thermal power
2. Biochemical power
3. Electrochemical power
4. hybrid designs
5. Personal powers systems

 

Contact Personal Power Systems:
100 Engineering Gateway University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-2625
pps@uci.edu
949-824-8745
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