Heat is something we all need specially when we are living in cold environments. So since the beginning, we have used warm jackets and sweaters to protect our body from extreme heat.
But recent rapid technological advancements have changed our clothing styles. There are already heating jackets that use electricity to generate heat energy through heating elements.
In Australia, I once ordered a heating jacket and tried it. One of the biggest things I noticed was the everything is manual. But as an AI and robotic researcher, I always think about how we can automate tasks to save time and money. so, I wanted to make an automatic self heating jacket using AI.
I did some thinking and did some research. Finally, I was able to come up with the most possible solution for this problem. That is to design a AI powered self heating jacket for general use.
Here is how this jacket works. The Jacket has 2 temperature sensors that can measure the room temperature. These measurements will go as input data into a micro-controller or processor unit. Then the program inside the unit will analyse the input data and make decisions based on the input data. The microcontroller unit will send two output signals. One output signal will go to the display unit to show measurements. Then another output signal will go to the relay unit. The relay is 3 V 1. It has 3 output ports and 1 input port. By using a relay unit, we can control the voltage for the heating element. There are three voltage forms that can create three temperatures based on the input temperature measurement. AL the process is done automatically by just pushing the power button.
I was studying Arduino at the time. So, I realized that I can use a temperature sensor as the input data device of my proposed system. Then the input data will be sent to the microcontroller which is being programmed to perform a special task.
Components (For my prototype version ) :
- Arduino UNO board
- lcd display
- Battery – 9V
- 2 v 1 relay
- jumper wires
- heating elements
- power bank(optional)
So, the input data is coming from the temperature sensors and the Arduino board will receive the input data signals. Then Arduino board will create two output data types. One is going to the LCD display and the other one is going to the relay.
The relay is connecting 3 output wires and one input wire. The input wire brings current flow from the external battery pack. Then 3 output wires are connected to the heating element in the jacket.
Now we have implemented the hardware together. But we need to program the system to make it work. So, now we are going to talk about the programming step.
Since this is a prototype and we are using the Arduino platform to build this, we are also using Arduino IDE and programming language (a modified C++).
I have included the full code in my GitHub account with a full description of the code. You can visit this link for the full code.
These heat jackets are very essential in the future. Although this is a prototype, we can develop them into actual products and make clothes and wearables more technologically advanced.