Preston, Daniel J.2021-05-032022-05-012021-052021-04-28May 2021Shveda, Rachel A.. "A Soft Textile-Based System to Harvest Walking Energy for Rehabilitative and Assistive Devices." (2021) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/110456">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/110456</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/110456Wearable assistive, rehabilitative, and augmentative devices require bulky and heavy power supplies, often making these tools more of a burden than an asset. This work demonstrates a soft, low-profile, and comfortable textile-based energy harvesting system. Pneumatic energy is harvested with a textile device integrated into a shoe insole, and pneumatic energy is stored in a flexible textile wearable, enabling users to produce and store the power needed to operate a range of pneumatic actuators. A maximum average power of nearly 3 W with a remarkably high efficiency (recovering more than 20% of the mechanical energy expended during walking) was harvested. The system was fabricated using a state-of-the-art stacked laminate assembly of textiles. To optimize our system, a mechano-fluidic model was developed and validated against experimental results. The use of our system is demonstrated in powering a textile-based assistive device as well as a supernumerary arm used to augment human capability.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.soft roboticswearable devicesenergy harvestingbiomechanicspneumaticefficiencyThesis2021-05-03