Development of smart heating clothing for the elderly

Abstract

As people age, their ability to regulate the body temperature gradually weakens. Old people are always more vulnerable to thermal-related discomfort in cold weather. The purpose of this paper was to develop a smart heating clothing for the elderly, which can automatically adjust the underwear microclimate according to different thermal condition. In our study, 8 elderly women were exposed to cold, we have measured the data of skin temperatures and taken the analysis on their physiological characteristics. The intelligent heating system for the elderly was developed with proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control. Through MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation, three key parameters in PID model were optimized after multiple tuning. Based on wearable sensor technology and auxiliary heating equipment, we have developed the design of smart heating clothing for the female elderly. The development of smart heating clothing can not only satisfy the thermal requirements of the aged in cold environments, but also provide a technical reference for the design of smart clothing in the future.