CAREER: Textile-Based Wearable Robots with Integrated Fluidic Logic

该学院早期职业发展(CALEAR)奖支持将流体计算直接集成到基于纺织品的平台中的研究。在流体计算中，电子电压和电流被流体压力差和流量取代。将流体逻辑集成到纺织品中，代表着朝着完全柔软、不受束缚的可穿戴辅助机器人迈出了重要的一步，能够改善美国8500万身体功能受限的成年人的生活质量。现有的用于运动辅助和康复的软流体执行器目前依赖于硬阀和笨重的电子控制系统，这些系统增加了系统重量，降低了舒适性，或者需要笨重的系绳连接到外部基础设施，限制了这些技术的采用。基于纺织品的流体计算机将克服这一限制，允许机载存储、决策和与环境互动，并导致真正柔软的可穿戴辅助机器人，外观和手感都像日常服装。侧重于教学、推广和指导的综合教育计划将允许同时开发有影响力的创新技术，并促进STEM的下一代领导人。计划的活动包括在将在网上传播的当地博物馆外展和本科课程中使用实际操作的流体逻辑组件，以及对高中生和本科生的纵向指导，重点是代表性不足的群体。为了开发一个基于纺织品的流体计算平台，采取了循序渐进的方法。首先，将通过设计和表征以纺织品为基础的类似于电阻、电容器和继电器的流体模拟，在电路元件水平上加深对基础知识的理解。这些电路元件将用作流体数字逻辑的构建块，其设计将在速度和其他计算指标方面实现高性能。最后，由数字逻辑元件构建的流体计算机将直接集成到可穿戴辅助机器人的结构中，以及基于纺织品的输入/输出设备和执行器。默认情况下，所有设计本质上都是复合材料，性能取决于材质选择和活动元素几何形状。物理建模，包括流体流动的分析非线性模型，将极大地帮助设计和实验表征。经过验证的电路元件模型以及逻辑电路将是研究成果之一。设计的可扩展性和制造的可重复性将是评估各级成功的关键因素。该项目由跨部门的机器人基础研究计划支持，该计划由工程指导委员会(ENG)和计算机和信息科学与工程指导委员会(CEISE)共同管理和资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports research to integrate fluidic computation—in which electronic voltages and currents are replaced by fluid pressure differences and flows—directly into a textile-based platform. Integration of fluidic logic in textiles represents an important step toward fully soft, untethered wearable assistive robots capable of improving quality of life for the 85 million adults in the United States living with physical functional limitations. Existing soft fluidic actuators for motion assistance and rehabilitation currently rely on hard valves and bulky electronic control systems which increase system weight and decrease comfort or require cumbersome tethers to external infrastructure, limiting adoption of these technologies. Textile-based fluidic computers will overcome this limitation, allowing onboard memory, decision making, and interaction with the environment, and leading to truly soft wearable assistive robots that look and feel like everyday clothing. An integrated educational plan focused on teaching, outreach, and mentoring will allow simultaneous development of impactful and innovative technology and promotion of the next generation of leaders in STEM. Planned activities include the use of hands-on fluid logic components in a local museum outreach and undergraduate curriculum that will be disseminated online, and longitudinal mentoring of high school and undergraduate students, with focus on underrepresented groups.To develop a textile-based platform for fluidic computation, a stepwise approach is taken. First, a deep fundamental understanding will be developed at the circuit element level by designing and characterizing textile-based fluidic analogs to resistors, capacitors, and relays. These circuit elements will be used as building blocks for fluidic digital logic, which will be engineered for high performance in terms of speed and other computational metrics. Finally, fluidic computers constructed from digital logic elements will be integrated directly into the structure of wearable assistive robots along with textile-based input/output devices and actuators. By default, all designs will be composite in nature, with performance dependent upon material choices and active element geometries. Design and experimental characterization will be significantly aided with physical modeling, including analytical nonlinear models of fluid flow. Validated models of circuit elements as well as logic circuits will be one of the research outcomes. Scalability of design and repeatability of fabrication will be key factors in the evaluation of success at all levels.This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.