Suit

Yet another half-baked idea I've been kicking around in my head for a few years. Want to get it down. Also, the thermal section would be really cool for Lauren.

If I get a 3D printer, that could be used for many of the parts, especially the helmet.

Core

The inspiration really came from the still-suits of Dune, but they've diverted a lot since then. The core of the suit would just be a harness of nylon webbing. It would also have (essentially) socks and gloves (sans finger-tips) as attachment points.

Power

Batteries to store power, I'd really like a way to recharge. Need to do research/tests. The best possibilities seem to be either pumps in the soles or a sliding back-pack. The backpack has the advantage of giving us somewhere to put everything, but now I can't lay on my back wearing it.

Another approach would be to add wireless charging to the soles.

A more efficient variation would be to add conductors to the soles and create a mat I can stand on that will negotiate a handshake and turn on power to just the cells that I'm standing on.

I think the best place to store the batteries is going to be in the shins. It should be easy to shape them and makes it easy to swap out. Also, kneepads should be one of the first parts, so this is an easy extension. If I get a hold of many of the AA sized batteries I could spread them out.

Simple

I don't really need to be able to recharge the suit while I'm using it. Easier is to make the battery easy to swap.

Pneumatic

A source of pneumatic power would be useful. Again, this could be from pumps in the soles. It might even make sense to tie this into power; walking pumps air, when the air pressure is too high or the power too low, pneumatic power is used to drive a small generator to power the batteries.

Temperature

This is the primary goal of the system - regulate temperature. There are a few details that make this easier.

There are two 'zones' - the core and the extremities (hand/feet). And there are 3 likely delta scenarios - we're cold and the air is cold, we're warm but the air is cold and we're warm and the air is warm. Together these create an interesting set. We never worry about the extremities being too warm, we only supply heat.

We never heat the core, we'll use a vest with air pockets. This will needs some work - it needs to be cool enough when deflated, and it needs to breath. But we can help a little with that with moisture control. Looking at a thermal image of a person, most of the heat loss happens along the back, near the spine. Assuming a person is roughly dressed for their climate, just adjusting this could be enough to adequately regulate core temperature.

We'll have a refrigerant - probably just a water/alcohol solution (just enough water to keep anything from growing). When it starts to get too warm, we run it through a heat sink. If the air is too warm to sufficiently cool, we'll use a piezoelectric cooler.

To cool the core, we'll have thermal exchanges on the back, from the bottom of the neck (as high up as we can go without stopping the head from tilting back) and in the armpits. I'm not quite sure how to manage that one. It may be best to just have the head exchange on the torso a little below the actual arm pit.

It may be more efficient to transport heat from the core to extremities, but it also could be difficult. It may be much easier to use small electric heating elements in place. I found a pair of full-on winter gloves rated at 7.7W, so 1-3W is probably plenty for normalization. I'm consistently seeing Li-Ion AA cells around 3000mAh. So that would provide continuous heat to all four limbs for 45 minutes. Not bad considering we'd probably never need continuous heat, feet will be far more insulated and we can easily put 4 batteries in. Li-Ion run 3.7V, I'll use 2 for 7.4, 1.5W needs 36.5Ω. My first thought was to just use enough wire, but that proves impractical - the wire needs to be ridiculously thin and long. But I did find 2.2Ω resistors. 17 of those in series would work, and that works nicely because I can put one on each finger segment (not sure about the tip) and the rest on the back of the hand.

The pads of the feet are evolved for thermal transfer. They can be used to move a lot of heat into and out of the body.

Heat Exchange

For the back I think I can construct one simply by layering aluminum (closest to skin), gasket, steel and insulation. To hold everything together I can braze some screws onto the aluminum. The thickness of the gasket creates the chamber and makes it water tight.

For the arm pits a short piece of think aluminum pipe should work. Probably 1/4"x2" - but that's easy to test.

Simple

A significantly simpler first version would be to simply use a 2L of ice as a heat sink. I can prep several of these and swap them out as needed. Fill it about 80% with water before freezing then top off with cold water before use (so there is some fluid in the system).

An additional step would be to add a small swamp cooler. The water would be cooled before returning to cold reservoir.

I can ignore active heating at first, later I can upgrade and swap out the ice pack for a heater. It drastically simplifies the suit if it's either equipped for heating or cooling, but not both.

Additionally, I'd like to just pump air into the suit. This should do a lot to keep me dry and cool and it's simple.

Moisture Control

Pull sweat away from the body - not entirely sure how to do this. Probably have material that wicks away moisture then have it run between a source of dry air and a air collector.

Simple

As with most of the "simple" solutions, rather than make the system self contained, use easy to swap parts. Find a highly absorbent material and fabricate pads for high sweat areas. Make enough to get through a day or two and just wash and dry them.

Protection

I'd like this to help guard against basic injuries. Knee-pads, wrist guards and lobstered joints for the fingers.

Water

Just a camel pack.

Utility

Lots of spots to clip things, the "pockets" will be clip-able pouches.

Stilts

This is getting out of half-baked and into quarter-baked, but I'd really like stilts. For anything approach smooth land, they can be much faster, and I can reach higher stuff without getting out a ladder. I'm interested in seeing if some sort of a spring configuration could make a light-jog pace more efficient.

I think the best bet for this is a four bar linkage. Pointing the toes raises you up and flattening your foot lowers you. I could use gas for the spring, then it can be controlled (logically) and released.

Wrist

Lots of fun stuff to do here. I like the magnetic pads. Control panel could be cool.

Helmet

Keeps the sun off (may be worth including a few photovoltaic cells).

For hearing, I want earmuffs (also cooled) with headphones. Externally, I'll have directional mic pickups and a filter/amplifier circuit (as well as audio in and bluetooth).

I'm not entirely sure how I'll do visual. I want normal vision, darkened vision and magnified vision. My first inclination was to achieve this by having lenses flip in and out of the way. But I could also this with mirror which would allow for greater functionality with (potentially) less complexity because there isn't as much space constraint. But I could also do the same thing as the audio. Get a display (or two) and a camera (or two) and collect the image and auto-balance it. This could also be a wide spectrum camera allowing for enhanced imaging (like Geordi). Look at "cardboard vr" for this.

Of course we'll add adjustable lighting. And water.

Finally (and most simply) I'd like to do some basic air filtering. At least to get the particles out.

Design

The innermost layer is constructed from fabric and nylon webbing. I think the fabric will help make it easier to put and on keep it from getting tangled. The buckles can be 3D printed.

The next layer is the inner mechanics. This is the electronics and fluid handling that needs to be close to me. So a lot of the temperature stuff. Also the main computer will be inside the suit.

Next is the plating. The plates are 3D printed and connect to points on the nylon webbing. This also includes whatever footwear I come up with.

One of the challenges is where to put bulk. Shoulders and thighs are the best locations, they won't throw off balance and can handle a lot of additional bulk. There are a lot of places that can handle small things; back of hands or forearms, shins, chest. I can put a substantial amount on my back, but I want to be able to lay down on my back and sit in a chair.

Network

The suit needs a local network to distribute power and control. Something like I2C. Ideally, this would be build right into the buckles of the nylon webbing, but I don't think that would be machine safe. So that's a test right there - can copper wires safely go through a washing machine.

If not, I can design the network as a thin layer that clips onto the buckles. Then the components clip onto that.

I also need to distribute pneumatic power and water.