IIT Indore develops shoes that generate electricity, track location in real time for armed forces

Indore: In an innovation that can boost the safety and efficiency of armed forces personnel, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore has designed special shoes for soldiers equipped with a technology that can generate electricity and detect the wearer's location in real time, officials said on Tuesday.

IIT Indore has already supplied the first batch of 10 pairs of these shoes to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), they said.

IIT Indore director Professor Suhas Joshi said the innovative features of these shoes will boost the safety, coordination and efficiency of Army personnel.

According to officials, the shoes, made under the guidance of Professor I A Palani, are enabled with Tribo-Electric Nanogenerator (TENG) technology that can generate electricity with every step.

The electricity will get stored in a device fixed in the soles and can be used to operate small appliances, they said.

Equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, these shoes can help determine the location of personnel in real-time, officials said.

The TENG technology can be used to track the location of senior citizens suffering from Alzheimer's, school children and climbers and can help monitor the attendance and work of workers in factories, they said.

These shoes can also accurately analyse the movements of sportspersons to improve their performance, officials said.