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Summary: 2004-01-2292
RoboSuit: Robotic Augmentations for Future Space Suits
David L. Akin
Space Systems Laboratory, University of Maryland
Copyright © 2004 Society of Automotive Engineers
ABSTRACT
Space suit design has been limited to evolutionary steps
since the first pressure suit was developed in 1934. While
this development process has improved the fit to the
wearer, it is still common to measure the performance of
a pressure suit by identifying what fraction of shirtsleeve
capability it allows. Given sufficient government and
commercial support, space could in the future be an
expanding realm of commercial and exploration activities,
including return to the moon and human Mars exploration,
with requirements for extravehicular activity orders of
magnitude beyond the maximum envisioned for the
International Space Station era. In such an environment,
the need for breakthrough technology is to make the space
suit into an augmentation of the human wearer, rather than
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