Culture shock

A new shock absorber harnesses energy from small bumps in the road, generating electricity while it smoothes the ride more effectively than conventional shocks.

The team of MIT undergraduate students that invented the device hope to initially find customers among companies that operate large fleets of heavy vehicles. They have already drawn interest from the US military and several truck manufacturers.

Shakeel Avadhany and his team-mates said that they could produce up to a 10 per cent improvement in overall vehicle fuel efficiency by using the regenerative shock absorbers.

The company that produces Humvees for the army - and is currently working on development of the next-generation version of the all-purpose vehicle - was interested enough to loan them a vehicle for testing purposes.

'We wanted to figure out where energy is being wasted in a vehicle,' said team member Zack Anderson. Some hybrid cars already do a good job of recovering the energy from braking, so the team looked elsewhere and quickly homed in on the suspension.