Post on 22-Jan-2018
Image from NASA
Extravehicular Mobility Unit
(EMU)
Primary Life Support System
(PLSS)
• Refrigeration equipment and water
tank for LCVG’s cold water supply.
• In 2013, a spacewalk was cut short
due to fluid leakage into the helmet.
Edward Hodgson’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) report
explored emerging technologies that could improve current EMU
designs to extend EVAs and improve control. The Chameleon Suit is
a concept design that adapts to the environment rather than simply
isolating the astronaut from the conditions of space. The following are
concepts and technologies proposed in the Chameleon Suit design.
Thermoelectric Heating & Cooling
• Thermoelectric modules embedded in the
suit provide both cooling and heating for
the astronaut.
• Smaller form factor compared to the
LCVG .
• Does not require liquid cooling, which
minimizes potential of fluid leakage.
Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG)
• Highly insulative layers of the EMU causes the body
to overheat and sweat during EVA.
• LCVG is a garment sewn with plastic tubing that
circulates cold water to regulate the astronaut’s core
body temperature.
Display and Control Module (DCM)
• Manual controls for communication, LCVG
temperature control, and suit pressure.
• Manually controlled system increases the
mental burden and difficulty of EVAs.
Adaptive Suit Structure
• Shape change polymers, in between
fabric layers, adjust the insulation
properties for thermoregulation.
• Voltage applied on the polymer causes the
material to compress or retract.
NASA spacesuits have been designed to protect astronauts from the extreme solar exposure and the frigid conditions of space. This Space Pod explores technologies that will augment spacesuits and future wearables/clothing to become more dynamic,
adaptive, and comfortable, for both astronauts and people on Earth.
Current Spacesuit Design Future Concept Spacesuit Design
The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) is a spacesuit that protects and
insulates the astronaut from the conditions of space during
extravehicular activities or “EVA” (operations outside of the shuttle).
Although the current EMU design has serviced EVAs in the past, the
design is antiquated and have posed issues.
Images of EMU from NASA. Images of Chameleon Suit from Edward Hodgson NAIC Report: “A Chameleon Suit to Liberate Human Exploration of Space Environments”
Autonomous Control System
• Network of embedded sensors monitor
astronaut’s vital signs.
• Autonomously control the shape change
polymers and thermoelectric materials to
maintain astronauts life-support and core
temperature.
But is there more that wearables can do besides monitoring vitals signs for fitness?
As clothing and wearable devices become more intelligent with new technologies and seamlessly integrated into our fashion, they will improve our lifestyle by becoming an extension of our bodies and enhancing human capabilities. Some future applications of wearable technologies include:
Current State of Wearable Technologies and Smart Clothing
Future of Wearable Technologies and Smart Clothing
• Fitness clothing embedded with
sensors.
• Developing “smart shirts” for
Canadian Space Agency’s
astronauts in 2016.
Wearable technologies are quickly becoming part of our daily lives. Sensors embedded into clothing, or in wearable devices, monitor biometric information like heart rate and sweat rate. At the moment, Wearables are commonly used by people to stay fit and competitive athletes to quantify and analyze their performance.
• Wearable fitness band monitoring:
− Step counts
− Calories burned
− Distance ran
− GPS
Images from HEXOSKIN, FitBit, and Athos Fitness,, fashioningtech.com, hovding.com, www.xslabs.net
• Pauline van Dongen and TU Eindhoven / Textiel
Musuem’s “Vigour” knitted cardigan.
• Stretch sensors on the back allow doctors to track the
progress of their patient’s rehabilitation exercises.
Rehabilitation & Health Monitoring Augmentation of Human Capabilities Extension of Self Expression
• Concealed bicycle helmet that deploys an airbag during
sudden change of acceleration (falling or collision).
• What other devices or tools can be integrated into
clothing?
• XS Lab’s Vilkas dress uses Nitinol wire to raise
the skirt’s hemline.
• Programmed to autonomously raise it’s
hemline, giving the dress it’s own personality.
A Glimpse into the Future
Like the Chameleon Suit worn by future astronauts, our clothing may one day autonomously maintain our thermal comfort. Imagine waiting at a bus stop on a sweltering day, but before you even start to sweat, your shirt cools you off, feeling cold like ice. And when returning home on a brisk night, the same shirt heat your body like a radiator.
This prototype demonstrates the concepts and technologies described in the Chameleon Suit to envision a future smart clothing that autonomously adapt to maintain comfort. The prototype a heating/cooling wrist device that is connected to an athletic sleeve embedded with controls and sensors.
Haptic Feedback
• The prototype vibrates
when the contact
sensors are touched,
allowing the user to
operate the prototype
without a visual
display.
Capacitive Touch Sensors
• Natural gesture controls to indicate
thermal comfort and activate Peltier
Unit
• Rubbing over touch sensors on the
outside of the fabric indicates feeling
cold.
• Pulling the touch sensor off the skin
in a fanning motion indicates feeling
hot.
Temperature Sensor
• Thermistor measures wrist skin
temperature, which can be correlated
to user’s thermal comfort (Hot/Cold).
Peltier Unit
• Thermoelectric ceramic heats and cools to provide
thermal comfort.
• Located on the wrist, which is temperature sensitive.
Microprocessor
• Processes user’s thermal
comfort level, controls the
vibration motors, and controls
heating/cooling on the Peltier
unit.
• Learns when the user feels hot
or cold by correlating measured
skin. temperature
measurements with thermal
comfort levels.
• The more data the
microprocessor gathers, the
better it can recognize when the
user feels hot/cold, and adapt by
turning on Peltier Unit to
maintain comfort.
Prototype Usage Instructions:
To Turn On Heating:
• Quickly rub your hand back and
forth across the two capacitive
sensors on the forearm.
• The Peltier Unit on the underside
of the wrist device will become
hot.
To Turn On Cooling:
• Gently pull the sensor, located on
the underside of the wrist, off the
skin and fan for 5 seconds.
• The Peltier Unit on the underside of
the wrist device will become cold.
Buildings consume 40% of the US energy usage mainly for space heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC).
Existing HVAC systems are controlled by wall thermostats programmed to maintain spaces at “comfortable” temperatures ranging from 71oF to 75oF. [1]
Unfortunately this is an antiquated and inefficient method of providing thermal comfort:
1. Each individual has a specific comfort range, which cannot be accommodated by a generalized room thermostat range
2. Heating/cooling an entire spaces is energy intensive and inefficient method of indirectly providing thermal comfort to the building occupants
Past research have focused on developing local thermal comfort systems that provide building occupants control of their own personal heating/cooling system. Localized thermal comfort systems have the potential to improve thermal comfort and allow buildings to expand thermostat settings by +/- 2oF, which can reduce building energy usage by 10%.[1] However, these localized thermal comfort systems have large initial costs, which have limited their adoption by commercial building owners.
This research proposes to develop a wearable personalized thermal comfort system that can achieve the following:
1. Measure and record physiological responses (skin temperature, sweating rate)
2. Analyze and determine the individual’s thermal comfort
3. Learn an individual’s thermal comfort range
4. Automatically control thermal comfort systems to maintain comfort
A wearable personalized thermal comfort system will be the platform for an autonomous individualized thermal comfort controls, helping buildings achieve 100% thermal satisfaction in buildings.
The wearable system can also control personalized wearable thermal comfort systems, allowing for a more efficient comfort delivery system and reducing energy usage in buildings.
Methods Research Plan
Wearable Personalized Thermal Comfort System:Improving Thermal Comfort and Reducing Energy Usage in Buildings
Justin Chin Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering
Bibliography
The wearable thermal comfort system will leverage the
recent advancements of several technological fields:
Smart Fabrics/Wearable Technologies
Thermal Comfort Research
Machine Learning & Distributed Networks
1. Hoyt, Tyler, et al. "Energy savings from extended air temperature setpoints and reductions in room air mixing." International Conference on Environmental Ergonomics 2009. 2005.
2. Choi, Joon Ho, "CoBi: Bio-Sensing Building Mechanical System Controls for Sustainably Enhancing Individual Thermal Comfort" (2010). Dissertations. Paper 33.
3. H. Profita, N. Farrow, N. Correll (2015): Flutter: An Exploration of an Assistive Garment Using Distributed Sensing, Computation and Actuation. In: Proc. of the ACM Conference on Tangible Embodied Interaction, Stanford, CA, 2015
1. Develop a robust wearable sensing system measuring and logging:
• Skin temperature• Skin wittedness• Location• Time• User indication of feeling cool, neutral, warm
2. Conduct user studies by having individuals wear the wearable sensing system for a month:
• Record physiological data throughout the day to gather user’s physiological data and thermal comfort level
3. Correlate thermal comfort with recorded measured parameters and develop algorithms to predict an individual’s comfort level:
• Train machine learning algorithms using existing knowledge of thermal comfort models and collected measurements during user study
4. Validate machine learning algorithm’s thermal comfort predictions for each individual by controlling an HVAC system:
• Individuals will be placed in a temperature controlled test chamber simulating hot and cold environments
• Wearable sensing system will measure the individual’s physiological response and the machine learning algorithm will predict the individual’s thermal comfort level
• The wearable sensing system will try to maintain the individual’s comfort level to neutral by controlling the test chamber’s HVAC thermostat temperature
5. Test the wearable thermal comfort system for localized heating/cooling systems:
• Repeat the temperature controlled test chamber experiments using the wearable sensing system to control a system that heats and cools individual body parts (arms, legs, back, chest etc.)
Introduction Challenges
While the technology and knowledge needed to develop a personalized thermal comfort exists, they are currently confined in different research fields and applications and have not been utilized together.
Past thermal comfort research have focused on comfort for people as a generalized group, but not for an individualized basis. The ubiquity of embedded sensing technologies will provide a vast amount of information, which can be used to determine comfort for each individual.
There have been few attempts to apply machine learning techniques for prediction of thermal comfort of individuals using physiological measurements.
The following diagram illustrates the design of the Wearable Personalized Thermal Comfort System, which integrates the technologies and research mentioned.
Wearable Personalized Thermal Comfort System Prototype Design
Challenges of constructing a robust wearable sensing system include:
1. Measuring and recording physiological responses2. User input to indicate their thermal discomfort3. Recording measured data continuously4. Comfortable form factor for everyday use
USC - Prof. Choi’s PhD Dissertation:
CoBi Bio-Sensing Building Mechanical System Controls for
Sustainably Enhancing Individual Thermal Comfort [2]
Nest:
Smart Thermostat
CU Boulder – Correl Lab:
Halley Profita, Nick Farrow
Flutter Dress [3]
Athos:
Fitness Performance Monitoring
Apparel
Wristify:
Heating/Cooling Comfort
Bracelet