Title:

Swellular - Wave Powered Communications System for First Responders - MECC Competition

The goal of this project is to design an affordable, reliable, and effective system that provides communication infrastructure to coastal communities. When a natural disaster strikes an island or coastal community, power lines and communication networks are interrupted or destroyed entirely. This provides the need for temporary communication infrastructure to be deployed to accommodate the existing, or increased demand. To help mitigate these challenges, the product uses wave energy to generate electricity, to power a communications array. To provide power to the communication tower, a round float follows the surface level of the water which drives an attached magnetic translator. This moves relative to the stationary spar which uses a heave plate and batteries at the bottom of the device to help keep it stable. This relative motion drives the magnetic translator through a linear generator which is able to generate adequate power for the communication array. This product would supplement or provide all communications infrastructure in an area after a natural disaster, without the need for portable land-based towers, which are expensive and difficult to deploy and maintain. The product can be easily deployed from a small fishing boat or larger vessel, by an independent contractor or member of the community. With the product sitting offshore, it will not be in the way of any disaster relief cleanup efforts and can be easily towed and removed from the area once communication infrastructure has been restored. This product benefits coastal communities by providing communication infrastructure on demand, without the need for onshore portable communication arrays. It also does not impede on the disaster relief process nor require consistent maintenance and refueling compared to current solutions.​

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