Honorable Mention 2017 / Sustainable Living/Environmental Preservation / Student

Anu Rugged

• Company
  Savannah College of Art and Design, United States
• Lead Designer
  Robert Weeks, Ian Reddick, Justin Montan, Brantley Everett, Rafael Hulme
• Design Team
  SCAD
• Project Link
  view
• Other credit
  Scad
• University
  Savannah College of Art and Design

The objective of ANU Rugged is to create
reliable, rugged products to enable nomadic
creatives, field scientists, and outdoor
professionals to stay connected in the field.
These professionals are frequently on the move
and find themselves in remote locations with a
need for power and connectivity. They are
outdoor adventurists and travel enthusiasts
who enjoy a life of travel and experiences with
a few quality possessions over a more
sedentary life in pursuit of material rewards.
This project looks at three primary problem
areas that our target users encounter: power
generation/storage,
communication/connectivity, and
weight/portability. Since they are constantly on
the move in foreign countries or wilderness
areas, finding a power source can be difficult.
As power is necessary for them to perform
their jobs, it is important for nomadic creatives
to generate and store power to take with them.
They often travel with only what they can carry
on their backs, or on a bicycle, meaning they
need lightweight, portable solutions to power
generation and storage. Some initial solutions
that were considered for power generation
were solar, wind, and water, but not all areas
have these conditions regularly. Fire is possible
almost anywhere, making it a more reliable
solution, and debris such as rock and soil are
available everywhere in the world, making a
gravity powered generator very practical. The
only limiting factor for this technology is the
availability of a tree or elevated area from
which to hang the device. Another problem
area is the need to be connected and
communicate. As nomadic creatives or field
scientists may stay in the field for weeks or
months at a time, communication with
colleagues, whether in the field or back in the
lab, is a necessity.