JP-8 Hydraulic Power System for Legged Robot

The Gen II Big Dog (LS3) requires a JP8/diesel-fueled engine to power its hydraulic pump. This 30-45kw engine and hydraulic pump must weigh less than 110 lbs and consume less than .66lbs/kw*hr. Cosworth proposes to adapt one of its a direct injection, compression ignition, 2-stroke cycle engines for this application. Cosworth’s core business is the design, development, manufacture, test and deployment of high performance reciprocating internal combustion engines of various different fuel types. In Phase I Cosworth has 3 engine configurations that will be studied further using a variety of modelling and simulation programs. Cosworth will utilize its extensive knowledge gained on previous JP8 engine programs to do preliminary design work for these 3 configurations. A variety of FE, CFD and performance analysis will be conducted to determine the optimal engine configuration. In Phase II Cosworth will fabricate and test this engine configuration. In-house facilities including dynomometers, environmental test cells and materials laboratories will be used to validate the performance of the engine, first stand-alone, and then mounted with the hydraulic pump. It will then be mounted to the Big Dog and additional testing will be done to ensure that all programs objectives have been met including power output, fuel consumption, noise output and thermal management.