My research group at Vanderbilt is conducting energy
efficiency research by examining a pneumatic strain energy accumulator. Essentially, the accumulator allows us to
store energy for a limited amount of time using pneumatics at much lower costs
than using traditional batteries. Often,
the energy we’re trying to salvage is energy that would normally go to waste
during some kind of a process; for example, the energy lost when a vehicle
comes to a stop by applying the brakes. We’ve
designed a number of tests to determine the accumulator’s efficiency as an
individual component and as part of a larger system, and to test its durability
via fatigue tests. By learning more
about this kind of technology, we hope that our research will one day be used
in industrial applications, vehicle design, and even biomedical research, as
evident from the accumulator’s more recent successful application in an Ankle
Foot Orthosis medical assist device.
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