Human Motion Energy for Rural Communities

The full participant-facing design brief printed in Fu et al. (2013) for the human-motion energy harvesting task, with the underlying task introduced in Chan et al. (2011).

See Text Problem Catalog for the text family index.

Quick Facts

Field	Value
Problem ID	`ideation_human_motion_energy_harvesting_rural_communities`
Problem Family	text
Implementation	`TextProblem`
Capabilities	`citation-backed`, `prompt-packet`, `statement-markdown`
Study Suitability	`human-subjects-ready`, `ideation-friendly`
Tags	`text`, `human-subjects`, `ideation`, `energy`, `rural-communities`

Taxonomy

Formulation: textual_prompt
Is Dynamic: no
Orientation: engineering_practical
Objective Mode: qualitative
Constraint Nature: informal
Tags: text, human-subjects, ideation, energy, rural-communities
Deliverable Type: concepts
Timebox Hint (Minutes): 20
Participants: individual
Evaluation Mode: idea_generation

Statement

Design a device to collect energy from human motion for use in developing and impoverished rural communities in places like India and many African countries. Our goal is to build a low-cost, easy to manufacture device targeted at individuals and small households to provide energy to be stored in a rechargeable battery with approximately 80% efficiency. The energy is intended to be used by small, low power draw electrical devices, such as a radio or lighting device, hopefully leading to an increase in the quality of life of the communities by increasing productivity, connection to the outside world, etc. The target energy production is 1 kW-h per day, roughly enough to power eight 25 W compact florescent light bulbs for 5 h each per day, or enough to power a CB radio for the entire day.

For reference, an average adult human can output about 200 W with full body physical activity for short periods of time, with a significant reduction for sustained power output.

Prompt Profile

Field	Value
Deliverable Type	concepts
Timebox Hint (Minutes)	20
Participants	individual
Evaluation Mode	idea_generation

Sources

Key	Summary
`fu_chan_cagan_kotovsky_schunn_wood_2013`	Fu, Chan, Cagan, Kotovsky, Schunn, and Wood (2013). The Meaning of “Near” and “Far”: The Impact of Structuring Design Databases and the Effect of Distance of Analogy on Design Output. Journal of Mechanical Design, 135(2), 021007.
`chan_fu_schunn_cagan_wood_kotovsky_2011`	Chan, Fu, Schunn, Cagan, Wood, and Kotovsky (2011). On the Benefits and Pitfalls of Analogies for Innovative Design: Ideation Performance Based on Analogical Distance, Commonness, and Modality of Examples. Journal of Mechanical Design, 133(8), 081004.

Raw Citation Records

@article{10.1115/1.4023158,
    author = {Fu, Katherine and Chan, Joel and Cagan, Jonathan and Kotovsky, Kenneth and Schunn, Christian and Wood, Kristin},
    title = {The Meaning of “Near” and “Far”: The Impact of Structuring Design Databases and the Effect of Distance of Analogy on Design Output},
    journal = {Journal of Mechanical Design},
    volume = {135},
    number = {2},
    pages = {021007},
    year = {2013},
    month = {01},
    issn = {1050-0472},
    doi = {10.1115/1.4023158},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4023158},
    eprint = {https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/mechanicaldesign/article-pdf/135/2/021007/6221498/md_135_2_021007.pdf},
}

@article{10.1115/1.4004396,
    author = {Chan, Joel and Fu, Katherine and Schunn, Christian and Cagan, Jonathan and Wood, Kristin and Kotovsky, Kenneth},
    title = {On the Benefits and Pitfalls of Analogies for Innovative Design: Ideation Performance Based on Analogical Distance, Commonness, and Modality of Examples},
    journal = {Journal of Mechanical Design},
    volume = {133},
    number = {8},
    pages = {081004},
    year = {2011},
    month = {08},
    issn = {1050-0472},
    doi = {10.1115/1.4004396},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4004396},
    eprint = {https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/mechanicaldesign/article-pdf/133/8/081004/5926174/081004_1.pdf},
}