A mathematically designed kink geometry, implemented in pressure-controllable ‘textile’ valves that cut the flow of air the same way a bent garden hose stops water, could help people with functional limitations with their day-to-day tasks.
- The logic-enabled textiles can be mass produced using existing clothes-manufacturing processes and are resilient enough to withstand everyday use.
- The idea is to have textile-based logic gates support pneumatic actuators, potentially in conjunction with an energy harvesting system developed by mechanical engineers at Rice University's George R. Brown School of Engineering at the Preston lab, to help people with functional limitations with their day-to-day tasks.
- The research backed by a recent National Science Foundation Career Award has appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
What was done: The idea of using fluids to construct digital logic circuits is not new. But so far, no one had taken the step to implement it in sheet-based materials, a feat which required redesigning the entire approach from first principles.
- The lab tested its logic on devices that assist users with physical motion and a system to raise and lower a hood with the push of a button, no electricity involved, for thermo-regulation.
- At the centre of the concept sits a "NOT" gate, a basic component of computer circuitry also known as an inverter. This logic gate's output is the inverse (or opposite) of the input. In an electronic circuit, the gate is on or off (1 or 0), but the pneumatic gate replaces those terms with "high" or "low" air pressure.
- The pneumatic system depends on a concept, the lead researcher described as a "mathematically designed kink geometry, implemented in pressure-controllable valves that cut the flow of air the same way a bent garden hose stops water."
- The valves, each about a square inch in size, are laminated into the textiles and have proved robust enough to handle 20,000 on-off cycles and 1 million flex cycles, as well as 20 cycles in a standard household washing machine.
