DESIGN
Self-Fitting and Active Compression Garments
Description
Superelastic Non-pneumatic Tire
Goal: To design and build a NiTi tire for use on Martian rovers, with improved characteristics over existing rover tires.
Motivation: Previous rover tires sustained significant damage when driving over adverse terrain leading to decreased rover life and decreased rover speeds due to safer pathing.
Research focus: Designing and optimizing a superelastic NiTi knitted profile for the surface of the tire.
Test method: Various patterns will be tested on an individual fabric level. Once a single pattern is chosen and optimized, a full tire will be built and installed on an ATV, then tested on various terrains.
Results of research: Improvements on superelastic NiTi textile manufacturing, improved understanding of superelastic NiTi textiles, and proof of concept for next generation rover tires.
Hybrid Soft Actuators
Project objective: Development of thermally driven soft actuators (soft-bodied programmable motion with mechanical compliance) by exploiting the properties of auxetics (negative Poisson's ratio) with active materials in a single system
Applications: Artificial muscles, wearable technologies, medical devices, soft grippers etc.
Inverse Design of Programmable Textiles
Description
MANUFACTURING
NiTi Microfiber Yarns and Fabrics
Description
MECHANICS
Multiscale Mechanics of Multifunctional Textiles
Description
MATERIALS
Memory Polymers
Project Objectives:
- Characterize memory polymer filaments, yarns, and textiles
- Evaluate the lifetime performance of memory polymer yarns and textiles
- Determine actuation strategies for wearable applications
Motivation: To leverage the unique material behavior of programmable polymers by manufacturing yarns and textiles of these materials for wearable or in-vivo applications.