Estimating Lines of Non-Extension During Joint Movements for Development of Mechanical Counter-Pressure Space Suit

Akshay Kothakonda
AA Graduate Student, MVL

Abstract: A Mechanical Counter-Pressure suit concept eliminates the requirement for pressurizing the wearer with gas pressure. This in turn eliminates the work needed to change the volume of gas within the suit during joint movements, resulting in a more mobile surface Extravehicular Activity suit. Since the direct mechanical counter pressure is provided by a fabric- tensioned elastically and actively, there will still be work incurred in stretching the suit fabric during joint movements. The cost of work can be further reduced using the principle of lines of non-extension. This is being used to aid in the development of the MIT BioSuitTM. To that end, lines of non-extension for various joint movements can be estimated and the suit fabric patterned along these lines. In the current research, a very high resolution (up to 1 mm2) can be achieved for estimating these lines using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique.