Simulation of Photovoltaics for Defence Applications
Power Generation Assessment and Investigation of the Available Integration Areas
of Photovoltaic Devices on a Virtual Infantryman
Ioannis Paraskevopoulos and Emmanuel Tsekleves
School of Engineering and Design , Brunel University, Uxbridge, London, U.K.
Keywords: 3D Simulation, Virtual Reality, Photovoltaic, Solar Energy Harvesting, Computer Simulation, Infantry
Soldier, Product Integrated Photovoltaics (PIPV), Wearable Photovoltaics.
Abstract: The use of photovoltaic (PV) technology for the harvesting of renewable energy is a reality and is widely
employed today. However this is mainly focused towards house and industry energy harvesting. Recent
development in thin and flexible materials mean that photovoltaic technology can be integrated into
wearable computing and expanded to other commercial as well as defence applications. This paper presents
work under the Solar Soldier project that aims to assess the incorporation of flexible PV technology on the
modern infantry soldier through the modelling and simulation of virtual military scenarios. The scenarios
consist of various military operational terrains, various lighting conditions as well as motions of the virtual
infantry soldier. The scenarios are simulated in a systematic way and for numerous global positions of
military interest. The results of these simulations are then organised and presented in a manner leading to
the assessment of the power generation potential per scenario and investigation of the optimum integration
areas of flexible PV devices on the infantryman.
1 INTRODUCTION
Despite the modern advances in military technology
the infantry soldier continues to play a very
significant role in defence. In the age of stealth jets,
nuclear munitions and guided weapons, it is still the
infantry soldier that examines and secures a location
to ascertain whether the target area is cleared and the
enemy is defeated. The modern infantry soldier
utilises the electronic technology and resources
available today, in order to penetrate into hostile and
difficult terrain where armoured vehicles cannot
trespass and overcome the enemy. The power
requirements of such electronic technology,
critically essential for the modern soldier, are much
higher when compared to the power requirements of
a civilian counterpart. Furthermore, the environment
of operation is far more hostile and challenging than
those of the civilian applications and the loss of
power may endanger the infantry soldier’s life.
That is the main reason behind the massive overload
of batteries constituting the 25% (source Ministry of
Defence of United Kingdom, MoD of UK) of the
overall equipment load (including lethal, survival
and communication). This fact indicates that there is
an uncontested restriction of manoeuvrability,
operational range and a significant physical and
cognitive burden.
The recent advances in the field of sustainable
energy and particularly the innovative flexible and
wearable photovoltaic (PV) technologies could offer
a potential solution to this issue, by removing, or
reducing at a great extent, the use of batteries. The
Solar Soldier project, which is partly funded by the
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
(DSTL) of the MoD of UK and the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC),
investigates this research challenge. Part of this
project is the work presented by this article which
focuses on how one could integrate the PV
technology epitomising the Solar Soldier concept
from a human interface and design perspective. The
objectives of this challenge are twofold:
To assess the incorporation of the PV
technology on the uniform and equipment of
the infantry soldier.
To measure and evaluate the effectiveness of
each area (amount of power generated under
various scenarios) as well as to investigate the
areas that yield the same power values all over
384
Paraskevopoulos I. and Tsekleves E..
Simulation of Photovoltaics for Defence Applications - Power Generation Assessment and Investigation of the Available Integration Areas of Photovoltaic
Devices on a Virtual Infantryman.
DOI: 10.5220/0004058903840396
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications (SIMULTECH-2012),
pages 384-396
ISBN: 978-989-8565-20-4
Copyright
c
2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
their extent for further research on usability
(human comfort, intuitiveness).
The bounds of this paper include and present the
study of the second objective with a focus on the
effectiveness of the proposed system. The usability
of the device is examined by liaising and interacting
with the Infantry Trials and Development Unit
(ITDU) of the DSTL in order to acquire more in
depth knowledge on the casualties and motional
habits of infantrymen during military operations.
The effectiveness of the device is measured by
employing the use of Virtual Simulations.
The article is organised in a number of sections
including an introduction and theoretical
background, presentation of the adopted
methodology, the results section, the discussion and
guidelines that are inferred by the results and finally
the conclusion.
2 BACKGROUND
The theoretical background of the study presented in
this paper belongs in various research areas such as
modelling and simulation (M&S), virtual reality
(VR) applications and product design aspects.
2.1 Virtual Reality and Defence
Applications
The advances of VR, in recent years, have led to the
development of new areas of applications beyond
the entertainment industry. Research and
development in interactive VR has been employed in
the areas of training, education, health and
simulation with one of the major areas of interest
being military and defence applications (Zyda,
2005). VR can be utilised for military applications to
perform a wide range of simulations. These range
from cognitive and behaviour simulations in battle to
ergonomic simulations; all serving the improvement
of the welfare of the modern soldier. These
simulations have to be conducted in a virtual
framework often consisting of assets that offer 3D
graphical representations of terrains, human avatars
and objects as well as weather and daylight
augmented systems. All these elements create a
Virtual World on a computer-based simulated
environment. This is of significant interest and
importance to research, as it offers a very useful
alternative reality especially for situations, such as
ours where actual experiments are not feasible or
dangerous to conduct in real life (Jarvenpaa,
Leidner, Teigland, and Wasko, 2007) (Chaturvedi,
Dolk, Drnevich, 2011). More precisely, Reece
(2003) has studied the movement behaviour of
soldier agents on a virtual battlefield, the Santos
Project (Abdel-Malek, Yang, Kim, Marler, Beck,
Swan, Frey-Law, Mathai, Murphy, Rahmatallah and
Arora 2007) (Yang, Rahmatalla, Marler, Adbel-
Malek and Harrison 2007) offers a virtual platform
for human ergonomics in military environments and
Shiau and Liang (2007) present a real-time network
VR military simulation system comprising weather,
physics and network communications. Blount,
Ringleb, Tolk, Bailey and Onate (2011) have
introduced the aspect of physical fitness into
simulations for infantry soldiers and others such as
Cioppa, Lucas and Sanchez (2004) and Bitinas,
Henscheid and Truong (2003) have worked with
agent-based simulations and their military
applications, focusing on human factors in military
combat and non-combat situations respectively. The
aforementioned literature focuses mainly on
simulating human factors and ergonomics either in
the production line or in military environments.
However the applications of VR Human Centred
simulations are not restricted to ergonomics. The
aspect of Human Centred Design (HCD) that this
article examines is the integration of renewable
energy devices on the human vesture and in
particular the integration of PV on the uniform and
equipment of the modern infantry soldier in terms of
light capture efficiency.
2.2 Simulation of Solar Light
Harvesting and Power Generation
Estimate
Currently the main focus of PV technology and its
corresponding simulations has been on building and
infrastructure applications. The very recent
developments in the area of PV devices (Parida,
Iniyan, Goicm, 2011), (Chaar, Lamont, Zein, 2011)
along with the introduction of thin films and flexible
materials for light absorption (Hashmi, Miettunen,
Peltola, Halme, Asghar, Aitola, Toivola and Lund,
2011) have attracted the focus of harvesting
renewable energy to human centred applications as
well. The study of the performance of the so-called
Product Integrated PhotoVoltaics (PIPV) (Reich
NH, van Sark, Turkenburg and Sinke, 2010)
is
twofold. Firstly, to investigate the performance and
electrical characteristics of the PV device itself;
secondly to study the effectiveness of light
harvesting and power generation, which is also the
main focus and aim of our work. The effectiveness
Simulation of Photovoltaics for Defence Applications - Power Generation Assessment and Investigation of the Available
Integration Areas of Photovoltaic Devices on a Virtual Infantryman
385
of power generation depends on the interaction of
the device with the environment as well as on the
type of integration of the PV on the product (e.g.
attached on clothing, embroidered or woven onto the
fabric). The environmental conditions would require
the modelling of daylight and shading in a 3D
authoring and simulation tool, whilst the integration
guidelines would require simulated scenarios and
results that would infer the most effective method of
integration.
2.2.1 Daylight and Shading Modelling
With regards to daylight modelling there have been
numerous studies on methods to maximise solar
system outputs such as the work of Mousazadeh,
Keyhani, Javadi, Mobli, Abrinia and Sharifi (2009).
Apart from research studies there has been major
development in the corresponding software industry
with very intelligent and complex packages
developed for daylight simulations, including 3D
Studio Max Design by Autodesk (3DSMD), which
is the software utilised in this project. 3DSMD was
chosen mainly because it comprises a toolset for
animation and because it includes the feature of light
analysis of a 3D scene, which is essential for a HCD
project such as this. 3DSMD also offers extension
capabilities through its embedded programming
language, Maxscript. It can thus be used to semi-
automate the procedures as described in the work of
Paraskevopoulos and Tsekleves (2011). The results
of the light analysis of 3DSMD have been validated
by Reinhart and Breton (2009) and Paraskevopoulos
and Tsekleves (2011) and the software has been
used in a number of other studies regarding light
harvesting for PV (Reich et al, 2010), (Reinders,
2007). Nevertheless, all of them have focused on
simulations where the PIPV device was in a static
position and none of these has studied the effect of
light analysis simulation whilst the PIPV is on the
move. Furthermore no previous work has offered
any conclusions or guidelines on the design aspects
of wearable PVs in terms of power generation
efficiency. Power values are calculated using the
simulated light intensity values and for areas spread
as much as the value is relatively constant. The
extents of these areas provide an area estimate and
design guideline to the PIPV designer.
2.2.2 Integration of PV on Commercial
Products
Although the integration of PV on commercial
products is not a new idea, the emergence of flexible
and thin film materials has extended the possibilities
of integration into more products with a smaller
scale factor which can be portable. However, until
recently and as stated in the work of Mestre and
Diehl (2005) there have been no guidelines for the
integration of PV on products in the context of either
human comfort or efficiency of energy harvesting.
The work of Reinders (2002) examines in depth the
options for PV systems and portable devices and
presents their advantages and drawbacks. Among the
drawbacks one indicates the lack of PV technology
penetration in our society and market. This is mainly
due to limited knowledge of this technology by
product designers and manufacturers, restricting in
turn the extension of applications for this
technology. Our work presented in this article aims
to fill in this gap by deploying design guidelines and
a simulation platform on the integration of PV on
military garment and equipment initially and
commercial products in the future. As already
mentioned in the introduction of this article the use
of virtual reality simulations is a prerequisite for
military applications due to the hostile and
extremely hazardous environment. Randall,
Bharatula, Perera, Von Buren, Ossevoort and Troster
(2004) have integrated solar modules to use them as
light sensors in order to collect physical
measurements and not for the purposes of light
analysis simulation. With regards to the design
aspects of the integration of PV on clothing Schubert
and Werner (2006) have presented an overview of
flexible solar cell technologies applied on wearable
renewable sources. This however focuses only on
the material aspect of PV. In their paper Schubert
and Werner (2006) reference Gemmer, who has
performed experimental investigation on light
harvesting under different daylight scenarios and has
calculated energy yield for various user profiles, for
example a “regular clerk”, an “outdoor construction
worker” and a “night shift nurse”. In the system we
propose these profiles can be very easily modelled
(3D avatars and motion capture) and simulated (light
analysis tool, 3DSMD) for all various light
conditions (daylight system, 3DSMD) and
encompassing environments (3D terrain models).
The outcomes of such simulations would infer the
design guidelines of the most efficient manner of
integration of PV on clothing in terms of light
harvest and power generation.
3 METHODOLOGY
The problem stated in the Introduction of this paper
requires the employment of a virtual framework able
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Applications
386
to conduct a number of experiments and collect
measurements, which are impossible to collect due
to the hazardous nature of the real environment. The
methodology that fulfils the development of such a
virtual framework is Modelling and Simulation
(M&S). The application of M&S presented in this
article is aimed at applying an existing feature of a
3D authoring commercial software, 3D Studio Max
Design (3DSMD), by extending its capabilities and
applying it to simulation of daylight for sustainable
energy applications of military interest. The lighting
analysis system of 3DSMD will be employed in a
virtual military environment framework. The light
sensors are employed as design assets by the
software and attached on specific areas of the
soldier’s uniform and equipment to assess the
incorporation of PV technology. The Block Diagram
of Figure 1 illustrates the overall adopted
methodology. The initial step of the methodology is
to acquire all virtual assets required for the scope of
the modelling and then manipulate them together in
the 3D assets Manipulation stage. The 3D asset
manipulation stage includes a human avatar (British
army infantry soldier), a set of animation clips
Figure 1: Block diagram of the overall methodology.
(motion capture) and virtual terrains (forest, urban
area, military camp). These have to be manipulated
(modelling, scaling, texturing, animating) in order to
fulfil the requirements of the planned simulation
scenarios. Then all the assets are merged together.
The 3DSMD daylight system is set up and the light
sensors are designed. This completes the virtual
scenes ready for simulation. The simulations yield
raw data in Comma Separated Value (CSV) form,
which then can be easily transformed to spreadsheets
and imported to Matlab for further analysis and
presentation.
3.1 Modelling
This stage includes the 3D asset acquisition and
manipulation as illustrated in the block diagram of
the overall methodology (Figure 1). The final
outcome of the modelling process is a virtual
framework that includes a series of military
scenarios, which are comprised of a virtual military
terrain, a human avatar (virtual infantry soldier) and
a range of movements. All various assets, either
designed or acquired from online available sources,
are then manipulated by incorporating them together
in unique scenes along with the daylight system and
the other assets (virtual light sensors and animation
clips). Further additional amendments are performed
on the models to ensure compliance with the
requirements of the lighting analysis plug-in of
3DSMD with are presented in the Daylight
Simulation tutorials by Autodesk (2009) and also
discussed in the work of Paraskevopoulos and
Tsekleves (2011). These amendments include
adjustments of the lighting system, modification of
the materials and lighting analysis render setup.
Among the aforementioned modifications, the
lighting system setup is the most significant as in
this setup we configure all the important parameters
of our daylight system. For example, the date and
time, the global locations as well as the sky model
are configured in this setup. Most significantly
though, the input of the system, in terms of light
intensity, is adjusted through the lighting system
setup, which is the daylight system available in
3DMSD and its corresponding modification panel.
For the purposes of this study we employ, as our
system input, the irradiance data provided by
Photovoltaic Geographical Information System
(PVGIS) (Sŭri, 2007). PVGIS is an online system
developed by the Joint Research centre for Energy
and Renewable Energy Units. The embedded light
analysis tool of 3DSMD does not incorporate a
feature for analysing mobile light sensors as the
main application of light analysis is in the area of
building engineering. For that reason, we developed
a script to perform an analysis for virtual scenes
containing mobile objects such as the human avatar,
in our case. The script exports light data with a
sample rate that the user can choose. For instance for
an animation with a default frame rate of 30 frames
Simulation of Photovoltaics for Defence Applications - Power Generation Assessment and Investigation of the Available
Integration Areas of Photovoltaic Devices on a Virtual Infantryman
387
per second (fps) and a total of 3000 frames (1
minute and 40 seconds), the user can set the sample
rate of analysis to 1 second. In this case the analysed
frames will be every 30 frames resulting to 100
measurements. The measurements are then exported
by the same script to spreadsheet format and
imported to Matlab for further analysis. Therefore,
in our approach we utilise a commercially available
3D authoring tool and extend it by using its own
programming interface and employ an M&S
methodology to an application of military interest.
This methodology enables our study to be the first
one to analyse mobile light sensors in a virtual
environment.
3.2 Simulation
After the modelling of the environment and merging
with the other virtual elements, the simulation
procedure is enabled. Apart from the 3D models,
every scene comprises virtual light sensors attached
on various areas of the soldier’s uniform. The
distribution and positioning of the sensors on the
uniform are based on suggestions and
recommendations after liaising with the
corresponding expert of DSTL and computational
power restrictions (the number of sensors is typically
8 for most high end computers) Figure 2 and Figure
3 depict the positioning of the selected sensors on
the soldier’s uniform and helmet:
Figure 2: Distribution of sensors (front view).
Figure 1 Distribution of sensors (back view)
Figure 3: Distribution of sensors (back view).
Eight light sensors comprise the collection of
sensors, namely:
Table 1: List of light sensors.
Right Shoulder Middle
Left Shoulder Middle
Right Shoulder Back
Left Shoulder Back
Right Forearm
Left Forearm
Helmet
Backpack Top
These sensors are attached on the geometry of the
human avatar, thus they follow every movement
their parent geometry performs. Several 3D models
have been employed for the purposes of our
simulation. These can be listed as follows:
Table 2: 3D models collection.
Terrain
Human Model
The 3DSMD Daylight System is employed as the
lighting system, which is global position adjustable.
After the design of the solar system the scene is
ready to be animated. For the purposes of this study,
the animation clips selected were that of a walk-
cycle that is one of the most typical motions that a
dismounted infantry soldier performs on average in
most missions. The global locations to examine are
also limitless. Since the work conducted is part of a
military project of the British Royal Army, a few
locations of interest for the purposes of the project
were selected.
Figure 4: Major British Troops Deployments (Source:
British Broadcasting Corporation).
Figure 4 illustrates the major deployments of British
soldiers around the world. The choice of locations to
examine covers various latitude and longitude
ranges. Thus, the following strategic points of
Figure 2 Distribution of sensors (back view)
SIMULTECH 2012 - 2nd International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and
Applications
388
interest are chosen, which offer distinct locations in
terms of both longitude and latitude:
- U.K., Catterick Garrison, (54.375, -1.708)
- Kosovo, Pristina (42.5, 20.9)
- Iraq, Baghdad (33.33, 44.44)
The resulted scenes must be simulated in such a
manner that they would cover a wide range of times
and dates. The range of times would have to cover
most of the effective time in the day in terms of
lighting; that is some hours before and some hours
after midday. The dates would have to cover all
seasons. Therefore, the proposed dates and times
under examination are shown in Table 3.
Table 3: Times and Dates.
Times
Date
The times selected are only in daylight time and not
during darkness for the following reason. This
article is part of the work conducted for the Solar
Soldier project, a consortium of 6 Universities all of
which investigated a specific aspect of the
incorporation, storage and distribution of electrical
power produced by coupled photovoltaic and
thermoelectric elements. The problem of energy
production during the times of no or very low light
is tackled by the use of supercapacitors for storage
as well as the use of the thermoelectric device.
The dates themselves are random but the months
are one every four and each from a different season.
The light data required for the input of our virtual
light system are taken from the PVGIS project as
mentioned above. It covers only the European and
Africa continents, which fits within the requirements
of this study. The online calculator provides the user
with monthly average solar irradiance values for a
given slope. The irradiance data is measured
according to the international system with watt per
square meter (W/m
2
). The software uses illuminance
values which are expressed in lumens per square
meter (lm/m
2
) or lux. The conversion of W/m
2
to
lm/m
2
is a very complicated and circuitous
mathematical procedure that requires the engineer to
know the spectral composition of the source in order
to solve the conversion formula. A publication in the
scientific disciple of horticulture, conducted by
Thimijan and Heins (1983) provides a table with
measured and solved conversion factors for different
sources including the sun for various spectrum
portions. Thus, the interconversion of radiometric to
photometric units enables the simulation with typical
monthly average irradiance values as input. The
simulations infer light level estimates of the given
sensor setup for each of the scenarios generated and
according to the adjustment of the various
parameters described above. The total scenarios
generated and simulated are 144 each one containing
8 light sensors. Each unique scenario differs in time,
date, global location and terrain type.
The differences of each terrain development
imply various walking distance and angles, although
a general rule was followed; to animate a walk route
of a block in order to cover all orientations (north,
south, east and west).
The frame rate for the animation was the default
value of 30 frames per second. For reasons of
computational economy, the sample rate of the light
analysis script described above was set to 2sec. With
all these conditions every simulation cycle lasted
about 1hour. Therefore, for the examined scenarios
the authors required about 144 computing hours on a
desktop PC with an i5 processor and 4 GB RAM.
The resulting average light level values for each
scenarios and for each unique sensor is transformed
back to W/m
2
and along with the guidelines from
DSTL liaising we calculate the optimum areas of
integration for each PV device on the soldier as well
as the average power values that they yield for each
of the examined scenarios. The results are organised
and stratified in increasing order so that a general
guideline is established and can be used for future
reference by PIPV designers and practioners. In
order to accomplish that, we utilise MatLab and its
data manipulation and graphical plotting toolsets.
MatLab was chosen for its high performance and
automation features that simplify the manipulation
of such massive sets of data.
For the power output levels, we used the
illuminance results of the simulations to calculate
the extent of the area on which this illuminance
value of each sensor is not significantly altered.
Therefore, hitherto sensor is replaced by the concept
of an area on which the light harvesting is almost
invariable. The extent of this area describes a unique
area of integration. Using the value of the area and
the efficiency value (5%) of the prototype PV device
developed for the Solar Soldier project by our
partners from Loughborough University we are able
to calculate and produce the average power graphs
of each sensor (in watt) using Matlab.
Simulation of Photovoltaics for Defence Applications - Power Generation Assessment and Investigation of the Available
Integration Areas of Photovoltaic Devices on a Virtual Infantryman
389
4 RESULTS
As described in the previous chapters, the aim of this
study is to simulate the use of PIPV technology in
different military environments and under various
lighting conditions and to investigate the optimum
integration of this technology on the uniform and
equipment of the modern infantry soldier. The
results of the simulations will manifest the
stratification of the various candidate areas of
integration on the uniform and equipment in the
context of higher power yield. These results can be
used by engineers and PIPV designers as a draft
blueprint of how and where to incorporate the PV
devices on the infantry soldier according to each
scenario. The results are organised in graphs of the
power yield for each season and under all scenarios
are presented. The average power values in W for
each of the scenarios and for all areas are organised
and presented in figures 5-13 in the Appendix.
Afterwards, the results are interpreted and the
classification of the areas can be inferred by
comparing the values of each season. Table 4
provides the overall classification in terms of power
generation for the examined scenarios as well as the
extent of each area in cm
2
:
Table 4: Integration areas classification.
Scene
Area
Classification
Forest
1. Backpack
2. Helmet
3. Forearms
4. Shoulder Mdl
5. Shoulder Back
300cm
2
314cm
2
100cm
2
70cm
2
60cm
2
Military Base
1. Helmet
2. Backpack
3. Forearms
4. Shoulder Middle
5. Shoulder Back
Urban Area
1. Helmet
2. Backpack
3. Forearms
4. Shoulder Middle
5. Shoulder Back
5 DISCUSSION & GUIDELINES
As stated in the Introduction, the usability of the PV
device proposed by the Solar Soldier project is
examined by liaising and interacting with DSTL.
This interaction derived to a preliminary set of
guidelines for the integration of PV on the uniform
or equipment. The feedback we received from DSTL
enabled us to narrow down the potential areas where
PIPV could be integrated and thus reduced the
number of light sensors to use in our simulations.
For instance, it was gathered that the chest and the
back of the uniform areas would not constitute good
candidate areas for installation of PIPVs as they are
constantly occluded by the gun and hands holding it
and by the backpack respectively. The second set of
guidelines derived from the case studies of the three
different environments presented above. Table 4
provides a draft guideline for designers and
manufactures of wearable PV devices in military
environments. It is clearly shown that this
classification can provide guides for the positioning
of such devices on the uniform and equipment of the
infantry soldier for the examined areas. For instance,
the helmet would be the first choice for every case
and environment. This fact was more or less
predictable yet not validated by any study so far.
Moving on, we notice that the top of the backpack as
well as the forearms as a set (right and left) qualify
as important area candidates for integration. The rest
areas qualify only as supplementary areas as they
show poor performance and come low in most
classifications. Combining the simulation data
presented in this paper along with the feedback on
the HCD ascertained from DSTLwe can provide the
following set of guidelines and recommendations
with regards to the integration of PIPVs on the
modern infantry soldier:
1. The best places on the soldier’s uniform in
terms of ergonomics and power generation are the
helmet followed by the backpack and forearms.
These three positions will provide the PV system
with constant exposure to solar radiation, which can
be converted to energy even when the soldier is on
the move.
2. It is recommended that the entire backpack is
covered with PVs as, on one hand, more PV panels
can be placed and thus more energy can be harvested
at all times as the soldier can easily leave the
backpack in the sun whilst resting. Although the
helmet yields the highest amount of light its
consistent supply of power to the solar harvesting
system may be stopped in certain cases. In very
warm environments of operations the soldier will
seek shade under natural and man-made
constructions such as trees and buildings and may
even take off the helmet whilst resting. This
necessitates further the need to place PVs on the
backpack as it can be removed and placed under the
sun.
SIMULTECH 2012 - 2nd International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and
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3. Integrating PV directly into the uniform is not
recommended as this is washed in extremely boiling
hot water. As fabric and nano-material technology
evolves it may be able to interweave the solar panel
nano-material onto the uniform that will withstand
extremely high temperatures. Until then it is
recommended that the solar panels are attached onto
Velcros so that the PV can be attached and detached.
This would also enable the interchange of the PV
positioning on the uniform according to the
environment and location of operation
6 CONCLUSIONS
Infantry soldiers today carry around a lot of
electronic equipment which have high power
consumption requirements. This forces them to
carry, in dismounted operations, several heavy and
bulky batteries which increase dramatically their
total equipment load. Renewable energy technology
such as the incorporation of PVs can substitute
batteries and relieve the soldier from the physical
and cognitive load. This study has proposed a
virtual simulation framework that mimics closely the
military environment for the purposes of
investigating the integration of PIPV technology on
the infantry soldier, by analysing and measuring the
effectiveness of light capture on various areas of the
uniform and equipment of the soldier. The
examined case studies covered several basic military
environments as well as the several potential areas
of integration of the PV device after interacting with
the army. After performing the simulations, the
resulting data were organised and presented in such
a manner enabling the classification of the examined
areas in order of power generation efficiency. The
derived overall classification infers draft yet
qualitative guidelines for any designer or
practitioner of wearable military applications.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors would like to thank EPSRC and DSTL
for the funding of the Solar Soldier project. We
would also like to thank all our project partners from
Glasgow University, Loughborough University,
Strathclyde University, Leeds University and
University of Reading for their valuable contribution
to our work.
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APPENDIX
Figure 5: A Forest scene in Baghdad.
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Figure 6: A Forest scene in Catterick Garrison.
Figure 7: A Forest scene in Pristina.
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Integration Areas of Photovoltaic Devices on a Virtual Infantryman
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Figure 8: A Military base scene in Baghdad.
Figure 9: A Military base scene in Catterick Garrisonb.
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Applications
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Figure 10: A Military base scene in Pristina.
Figure 11: A Urban area scene in Baghdad.
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Integration Areas of Photovoltaic Devices on a Virtual Infantryman
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Figure 12: A Urban area scene in Baghdad.
Figure 13: A Urban area scene in Baghdad.
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Applications
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