PuddleMover-1 Road/Pavement Harvest → Accumulator → Low-Head Stormwater Relocation

This record documents the conceptual design, system architecture, and staged validation framework for PuddleMover-1, a passive stormwater relocation module intended to mitigate persistent surface water accumulation on pavements, car parks, access roads, and similar hardstanding. The system harvests small amounts of mechanical energy that are already dissipated during normal use of the built environment (e.g. pedestrian footfall, low-speed vehicle traffic over speed humps or rumble strips). Harvested energy is buffered in a sealed accumulator and released intermittently through a low-head pumping stage to relocate nuisance surface water from local depressions to nearby acceptable discharge points such as soakaways, rain gardens, higher drain inlets, or storage tanks. The design deliberately avoids electrical components, continuous active control, and behavioural dependence. Instead, it operates as a discrete-state mechanical system with clearly defined charge, discharge, and reset phases enforced by passive hydraulic hysteresis. All components are conceived as modular overlay elements, suitable for temporary pilots, retrofit, or incremental integration without invasive civil works. The work is presented using a kaizen-aligned methodology. The scope is intentionally limited to functional architecture, safety considerations, and proof-testing protocols sufficient to demonstrate repeatable operation and adoption suitability. Performance optimisation, large-scale deployment modelling, and integration with regulated public sewer infrastructure are explicitly deferred to later stages. Primary intended benefits include reduction of slip and freeze hazards, improved accessibility, reduced maintenance call-outs, and passive management of stormwater at sites where standing water is a recurring operational problem. The system is designed for deployment on private or semi-private land where adoption can proceed without regulatory friction, enabling rapid field validation and iterative refinement. This record is intended to support replication, critical inspection, and staged development by practitioners in drainage, civil maintenance, and passive infrastructure design, rather than to assert claims of novelty or final performance. References https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18318910 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18340968