NASA, Rice University Develop ‘Upper Extremity’ Wearable Tech

NASA and Rice University have collaborated to build a wearable technology designed to activate the user’s elbow joints and the shoulder with a cable transmission system.

The Soft Wearable Upper Extremity Garment, nicknamed “Armstrong,” uses Bowden cable actuators to manipulate synthetic tendons that cross the upper body, NASA said Saturday.

The agency’s Wearable Robotics Laboratory has applied the technologies produced for the X1 robotic exoskeleton and Space Suit Roboglove to the Armstrong development project.

NASA intends for the wearable technology to help ease astronauts’ manual lifting and manipulation tasks when they conduct planetary extravehicular activity.