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Technical Paper

Performance of EVA Suit Mobility Joints Influence of Driving Parameters

1993-07-01
932098
The smallest manned spacecraft conceivable is the Extravehicular Activity Space Suit (EVA). It makes the astronaut autonomous on the space facilities, protecting him against the hostile environment and allowing the crew to provide sufficient performance and productivity. The specificity of the suit enclosure is related to the fact that it must ensure protection functions which are in conflict with the human performance function. For example, the enclosure is pressurized to protect the astronaut against the vacuum but such inner pressure rigidifies limbs and waist thus degrading mobility and working capability. The mobility is obtained through the combination of pressure tight bearings and one or two degrees of freedom (DOF) joints interfacing with a hard upper torso and hard bearings. In fact, the astronaut (motor) and the suit (passive) can be considered as two separate robots working in parallel, the performance depending on their compatibility and the level of the inner pressure.
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