Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Wearable technologies can be powerful assistive tools, increasing independence and improving therapeutic compliance for individuals living with various musculoskeletal conditions, such as lymphedema, osteoarthritis, and those recovering from spinal cord injuries and strokes. Traditional wearable assistive technologies (WATs), such as rigid and rigid-soft hybrid braces, and sleeves are challenged to make the jump from stationary to on-the-go treatment because they are expensive, bulky, and tethered to external power sources. Soft robotic WATs (SRWATs) have emerged to fill this gap, employing pneumatically controlled (inflate/deflate) air balloon soft actuators (ABSA) to apply the desired compression to affected body parts. However, they too have a trade-off between performance and portability because each ABSA is controlled by its own electromechanical solenoid valve (ESV). This means high-performance SRWATs (with many ABSAs) are so energy intensive that they must be tethered to bulky external power sources, limiting on-the-go mobility. Fewer ABSAs, on the other hand, enables portability, but dramatically reduces performance to the point of being ineffective. The requested equipment will advance the applicant's world-leading research into the development of air microfluidics (AM)-enabled SRWATs that leverage AM's multiplexing capability to individually actuate multiple ABSAs with a single ESV. While these technologies offer a lightweight, power efficient, and, therefore, portable solution for on-the-go treatment, they lack feedback control to adapt to changes in the user's physical condition, which requires the development of flexible and stretchable sensors and circuits for data acquisition. The requested system is crucial to addressing these challenges; it will enable rapid prototyping and ensure quality control of flexible and stretchable sensors and circuits. It comprises of two major components: a circuit printer that can print a wide range of conductive inks (sensors and circuits) on flexible, stretchable and conformable substrates, and a handheld 3D scanner needed to dynamically quantify the quality of the printed sensors and circuits when stretched, bent and twisted (as they would do during on-the-go treatment). Research enabled by the requested system will produce truly portable and effective AM-enabled SWRAT capable of on-the-go treatment. Such a system will also foster an interdisciplinary training platform that equips trainees with simulation skills for the design and optimization of sensors and circuits, and fabrication and characterization skills using 3D printing and 3D scanning techniques encompassing hardware and software. Trainees with this skill set will be highly sought after and job-ready for academia and positions mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as biomedical industries.