Events Calendar

Speaker: Marquise Bell

Title:Thermal and Fluidic Design of Textile-Based Compliant Wearables

Abstract: Conventional wearable robots are typically composed of bulky and rigid components that often limit user comfort and utility. In contrast, the compliance of soft materials allows easier integration into conventional wearable architectures and safer human-robot interaction. Specifically, off-the-shelf textiles and polymer sheets can be combined to create low-profile compliant assistive systems; however, the design space for these compliant systems remains limited, and a need persists for customizable and cost-effective solutions using these materials. My research integrates functionality into lightweight composite textile-based materials using thermal and fluidic design principles. In this talk, I will describe three systems I developed with this approach: (1) a thermally self-decontaminating composite textile as a form of reusable personal protective equipment (PPE), (2) a wearable thermally self-sensing heating material for thermoregulation, and (3) a thermopneumatic body heat harvesting device to power assistive soft pneumatic actuators. Building on this paradigm, I aim to develop the next generation of wearable assistive devices, thermal management systems, and energy harvesting techniques.

About the Speaker: Marquise D. Bell is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University. His research investigates thermal and fluidic design within soft, wearable structures, primarily for assistive devices, using textile-based materials. Marquise is supported by a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) Fellowship and a GEM Fellowship. His research spans from material-level design of compliant robotic components to enhanced device-level performance, all through a thermal and fluidic lens.