An astronaut's ability to leverage the sense of touch is substantially reduced when wearing a protective, pressurized spacesuit. We imagine reinstating the biological skin's sense of touch by mapping inputs on the protective suit's exterior layer to a haptic feedback system on the biological skin.
This concept is an illustrative application area for the SpaceSkin project, showcasing how aerospace-grade electronic textiles might improve astronaut situational awareness, as well as strengthen a sense of connection to fellow explorers.
V1 and V2 are early prototypes. V2 and V3 formed the basis of a conference publication in IEEE Aerospace 2021.
Excerpted graphics from conference paper:
An astronaut's ability to leverage the sense of touch is substantially reduced when wearing a protective, pressurized spacesuit. We imagine reinstating the biological skin's sense of touch by mapping inputs on the protective suit's exterior layer to a haptic feedback system on the biological skin.
This concept is an illustrative application area for the SpaceSkin project, showcasing how aerospace-grade electronic textiles might improve astronaut situational awareness, as well as strengthen a sense of connection to fellow explorers.
V1 and V2 are early prototypes. V2 and V3 formed the basis of a conference publication in IEEE Aerospace 2021.
Excerpted graphics from conference paper: