Proposed Architecture of a Sensory Enhanced Suit for Space Applications

摘要

Future astronautical operations indicate the need to develop technological systems to aid personnel in operational situations. Given the characteristics of both outer space and planetary exploration missions, these situations could be of both critical and routine nature. This paper analyzes current enhancements in space suit design and provides an architecture to integrate new technologies into an operational wearable system. The suit described in this paper is an improved iteration architecture of the Enhanced Space Navigation and Orientation Suit (ESNOS) designed in 2016 at the Human-Centered Design Institute. ESNOS is a suit equipped with haptic feedback and navigation/orientation sensors. The new sensory enhanced wearable suit builds upon ESNOS focusing on additional technologies and newer requirements. The researchers emphasize in particular the different typologies of sensors: suit sensors and environmental sensors. The suit is user-oriented, and includes biometric (heart rate variability, pulse oximetry, etc.) and emotional sensors. The environmental sensors are focused on external probing, and include range-based location tracking, proximity sensing and temperature/gas analysis. This paper also provides a description of positive suit ergonomics and optimal human-systems integration methods. Finally, the authors provide the intent of the future work.