Temperature Data Glove for Astronauts

Prototyping a safer, More efficient astronaut glove with distant temperature-sensing capabilities

Project Role: Wearables Prototyper and Lead Developer

Technologies: C (for Arduino), Arduino, IR Sensors and Camera, LEDs, Motors

Video and Poster: Infrared Glove Demo, Infrared Temperature Sensing Glove

We designed, coded, and assembled a glove prototype that provides temperature data of distant objects via IR sensors, intuitive color-coded visuals, and haptic feedback to prevent injury in high-risk environments by alerting the user if a distant object is too hot or cold to touch. This is useful in occupations that require immediate processing of unknown temperature data, such as astronaut missions, firefighting, and welding. Each week we iterated on the initial prototype and tested it virtually, getting user feedback from users in the aerospace field and providing project reports.

The team of four students who worked on this project were funded by NASA’s Colorado Space Grant during the spring semester of 2019 and our prototype received first place in a competition as judged by aerospace and software engineers from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Ball Aerospace and Lockheed Martin.

Improvements such as the glove material, visual feedback temperature limits, hardware improvements, and code refactoring will be implemented in the future via user testing and further prototyping.

Individual Contributions:

• Conducted initial research on applications of the glove for various users (astronauts, welders, those with disabilities).

• Designed glove proof of concept with team members and provided biweekly project reports.

• Coded 90% of the program; responsible for all code integration and final working prototype.

• Reduced noise, refactored code, and redesigned data structures at short notice when team decided to add in more features and use different sensors a week prior to presentation.

• Layout and content work on final presentation.