Planetary Gear

A Humvee made by American General.

(Credit: AM General)

Lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel has signed an 18-month, $1.29 million contract with the U.S. Army to design and test hybrid battery options for the Humvee.

Trying to power the iconic fuel-guzzling High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV aka Humvee) with a battery, may seem like trying to put out a fire with a garden hose. But a lithium-ion battery system can deliver a lot of power from a battery quickly, giving a truck like the Humvee the thrust it requires.

EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1, will collaborate with the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) on four possible power systems that could be implemented in the XM1124 version of the Humvee.

The company, which specializes in battery cell chemistry as well as the electronics and battery system designs, said it already has two viable options. EnerDel has developed a lithium-tatinate system in conjunction with Argonne National Laboratory that could accommodate the acceleration and hard braking required for such a powerful vehicle like the Humvee. It also has a lithium-manganese system that would give a vehicle extra-long range and allow electronics to be run off the battery for extended periods of time before needing to be recharged.

As part of the 18-month contract, EnerDel will also be involved in testing the systems under "extreme performance simulations." In addition to putting the test vehicles through the usual Humvee paces of wading through water and mountain climbing, there will also be an endurance test.

That will include seeing how a hybrid Humvee fares as a power plant for a field hospital or temporary military post. The requirement makes perfect sense given the ease with which a Humvee can be transported to hard-to-reach areas. One of its key features has always been that it could be dropped in to virtually any terrain by parachute.

A Humvee being parachuted out of a plane.

(Credit: AM General)

The hybrid Humvee will also be more stealthy. Anyone who's had a close call with a Prius knows how dangerously silent hybrids can be in total battery mode. The hybrid version of the Humvee will have a powered-down "silent watch" mode that will allow it to run with its diesel generator off, reducing not only its noise, but also its thermal signature to avoid detection.

As always with major military project announcements, the company involved was quick to point out the down-the-road commercial application of its technology.

"In keeping with a long tradition, we also expect that innovations perfected here will have important benefits for the commercial markets," EnerDel President Rick Stanley said in a a statement.

There has already been interest in Raser Technologies' H3E, a plug-in hybrid version of a Hummer-branded SUV called the H3. While not truly a Hummer (the civilian version of the Humvee), the "Hummer-light" descendant has garnered the interest of even the most discerning Hummer enthusiasts.

So if EnerDel's batteries might be good enough to power a Hummvee, why haven't commercial automakers been knocking? They have actually. The company has signed research partnerships of varying commitment levels with Think Global, Fisker Automotive, Volvo, and Nissan. Its parent company, Ener1, is also working with U.S. utilities to develop smart grid storage units.

A scientist demonstrates a piece of flexible display made with stainless-steel foil.

(Credit: U.S. Army)

The U.S. Army has committed to renewing its partnership and providing another $50 million to Arizona State University's flexible-display research facility, the university announced on Thursday.

That brings the Army's total investment since the Flexible Display Center (FDC) started in 2004 to $100 million.

The announcement comes in conjunction with a two-day event in Tempe, Ariz., near ASU, in which the U.S. Army and Flexible Display Center plan to showcase their progress to the public.

So why is the military so keen on flexible displays?

It's all about information and communications...and possibly profit.

A mock-up of a roll-out electronic map provides just one creative example of how flexible displays might be useful to the U.S. Army.

(Credit: U.S. Army)

Flexible displays are paper-thin electronic screens that can be bent, mounted onto objects, and sewn into clothing. Soldiers could easily wear them on their sleeves or wrists, and use them to receive critical data in real time in the form of instructions, photos, or maps.

In addition, flexible displays can be made more durable than regular LCD screens, allowing them to get banged around in combat and still work. They also consume only a fraction of the power of LCDs.

That doesn't just make them good for the military; it also makes for cool tech products.

That commercial value is something the military, ASU, and its partners clearly have in mind.

Chrysler's General Electric Motorcar delivered the first six, out of the thousands of NEVs the U.S. Army plans to lease in the coming years.

(Credit: U.S. Army/General Electric Motorcars)

The Big 3 of Detroit aren't the only ones singing the praises of electric vehicles this week.

The U.S. Army on Monday announced an initiative to potentially replace up to 28,000 gas-powered vehicles at more than 155 Army installations with Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) in the coming years.

NEVs are not highway-legal electric vehicles, but rather light-use electric vehicles with a maximum speed of 25 mph. The Army intends to use them for nontactical things like on-base transportation for visitors, or maintenance personal and their equipment, according to Paul Bollinger, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Energy & Partnerships.

Plans are already in the works to replace 4,000 gas-powered vehicles over the next three years with leased NEVs through a partnership with the General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S. government's main procurement agency.

Global Electric Motorcar (GEM), a division of Chrysler, delivered the first six NEVs to Fort Myer, Virginia on Monday. Two of the NEVs are four-seat sedans. The other four are two-seat trucks with flatbeds and a payload capacity of 1,000 pounds. Both models have a range of 30 miles at 25 mph on a full eight-hour battery charge, and cost about $10,200 each.

While GEM is the first manufacturer to have won a contract for this initiative, it will not be the only supplier. Contracts are still open for bid to any company on the GSA's approved vendor list, Bollinger said.

The Army expects to replace a total of 800 army vehicles with NEVs this year, and replace 1,600 per year for 2010 and 2011.

By replacing 4,000 gas-powered vehicles with NEVs the Army will save 11 million gallons of fuel and 115,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the 6-year life of each vehicle, according to a statement from U.S. Army.

As part of the lease agreement, GEM will take care of battery replacement and maintenance costs.

One of the leading reasons the U.S. Army ultimately decided to go with NEVs as opposed to hydrogen or another alternative fuel vehicle, according to Bollinger, is that NEVs require little infrastructure to implement.

"These plug into any three-prong electrical outlet. There's nothing big or complicated about it whatsoever. Most will go into depots where they come into a central area to be charged," Bollinger said during a press teleconference.

The Army has estimated no more than $200 per vehicle for implementation, in the event that a three-prong electrical outlet is not readily available for the NEV to plug into and needs to be installed. And it expects to pay about $400 in electrical power for each vehicle per year, according to Bollinger.

While a potential 28,000 vehicles is good news for those electric vehicle manufacturers on the GSA's list of approved vendors, there could be even more orders soon up for grabs from two other branches of the military.

"No one from the Air Force has told me face-to-face that they would like to move in this area, but I've heard it in back channel communications. But the Navy has told me. They are interested in piggy-backing on the Army's order," said Bollinger.

GEM's four-seater sedan.

(Credit: U.S. Army/General Electric Motorcars)

The U.S. military has been working on a new use for old PackBots that will save soldiers time and aggravation, though not replace them completely, when it comes to chemical warfare.

A CUGV PackBot at the 95th Chemical Company at Fort Richardson, Alaska.

(Credit: U.S. Army Alaska)

With new Foster-Miller Talon and 510 PackBot models being introduced, the old PackBot models will be rotated out of use in combat.

The Department of Defense ordered that the older models be put to good use. Through a program towards that end, the 95th Chemical Company at Fort Richardson in Alaska has been testing out modded PackBots since 2005.

The new/old PackBot, called a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Unmanned Ground Vehicle or CUGV for short, will be ready for field use this fall, according to the U.S. Army.

It's been fitted with a lightweight chemical detector to sense nerve gas, among other things.

"The CUGV detects ammonia, chlorine, carbon monoxide, oxygen levels, lower explosive limits, volatile organic compounds, gamma radiation rate and dose rate, temperature, and humidity," Herschel J. Deaton, CBRN programs technical staff for Concurrent Technologies Corp. at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., said in an Army News Service story.

It's also fitted with a video camera for live feeds that can be taped by the person controlling the robot back at operations for analysis at a later time.

Soldiers from the 95th Chemical Company set up a robot control station.

(Credit: U.S. Army Alaska)

In the absence of a CUGV, a soldier has to wear a Level A airtight suit and self-contained breathing apparatus akin to scuba gear when going into a suspected contaminated zone. Because of the heat and the oxygen limitations in such a suit, he or she only had about 45 minutes to get to the site, inspect it, and get back to a safe area.

The iRobot PackBot can be sent in to a contamination zone for up to 4 hours if necessary, according to the Army report.

Unfortunately, the CUGV can not entirely replace the soldier. Since it cannot take a sample of water, dirt, or vegetation to be brought back to a lab, a human will still have to go in for that.

But the PackBot will still alleviate a lot of the time-consuming legwork leading up to that task by mapping out and identifying the contaminates in a given area, according to the Army report.

Knowing what kind of contaminate is in the area would also help keep soldiers from needless donning of the Level A suit.