Exoskeleton Augmentation for Flightline and Airfield Operations

The overall goal of our program is to design, fabricate, and test a soft suit (entitled ‘PowerFlex suit’) which safely and optimally augments the wearer’s muscle power, thus reducing the effort required to perform physically demanding activities such as lifting and moving heavy loads. The suit supports correct posture, is lightweight and can be worn as a base layer, as an external garment, or even as the clothing itself for extended periods of time. PowerFlex suit design leverages technologies developed by NextGen Aeronautics and SRI and builds upon Powered Clothing from Seismic, a SRI spin-off company. The design of Powered Clothing is informed by a biomechanics analysis of the target use cases. Seismic’s current product, the Mobi 2.0, provides programmable support around each hip and the lower and mid-back for activities performed during periods of extended standing, sitting, stooping, forward or backward leaning, kneeling, and squatting. The suit design is conformal and uses muscle-like actuators that work synergistically with the human body. Starting with the Mobi 2.0, PowerFlex suit design will incorporate enhanced augmentation using sensors and actuators as needed to assist in lifting, pushing, and pulling heavy loads and other activities outlined in the Solicitation. We will develop and incorporate activity classification and control software in the suit to ensure optimal and safe augmentation appropriate for the activity and task being performed by the wearer. We will conduct extensive lab and field testing at the component and system levels; in Months 9 and 12 deliver the first two PowerFlex Suits to the customer for extended testing. We will upgrade the software and hardware on these two suits based on team and government testing; we will fabricate three more, delivering a total of 5 PowerFlex suits to the customer at the end of the 15-month Program. Documentation will include a comprehensive Operations and Safety Manual.