After being inspired by robotic pants in the animated movie Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, scientists created “The Right Trousers,” a set of pants containing electrical pumps and tubes to assist people who have trouble standing up.
Yoel Fink, a material science professor at MIT, says they’re in the pre-announcement stage of development. “It’s very, very exciting.”
In June, researchers in Australia were able to design and create textiles that implemented robotics, allowing them to move automatically. In 2021, MIT scientists created materials with embedded battery gels and programmable threads. They say that people can expect assistive pants for the elderly or disabled, and athletic socks that increase blood flow.
Recently, Google partnered with Levi’s, Yves Saint Laurent, and Adidas to put sensors in clothes, allowing customers to control their phone by making gestures on the fabric. At the University of New South Wales, Nho Do, a senior lecturer, and his team created small silicon tubes that make fabric change shape when stimulated with an electrical current. They are currently working on making the diameter of the fabric about 0.1 millimeters. However, in order to make smart fabrics functional, the clothes need a computing unit to control and coordinate the technology.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are shaped like a long fiber could be woven into the textiles as a power source. Fink and his colleagues say the biggest challenge is determining what the fabric would look like.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a professor at Yale University, says “It will be challenging to make these clothes, filled with fibers and technology, durable enough to withstand multiple cycles in the laundry. The added bulk of specialized fibers could make wearable smart textiles uncomfortable or difficult to put on or take off.” Nonetheless, she believes that robotic clothing will soon become a popular product.
“Recent breakthroughs,” she said, “point toward a not-so-distant future where smart textiles will be a part of our everyday wardrobe.”
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Yoel Fink, a material science professor at MIT, says they’re in the pre-announcement stage of development. “It’s very, very exciting.”
In June, researchers in Australia were able to design and create textiles that implemented robotics, allowing them to move automatically. In 2021, MIT scientists created materials with embedded battery gels and programmable threads. They say that people can expect assistive pants for the elderly or disabled, and athletic socks that increase blood flow.
Recently, Google partnered with Levi’s, Yves Saint Laurent, and Adidas to put sensors in clothes, allowing customers to control their phone by making gestures on the fabric. At the University of New South Wales, Nho Do, a senior lecturer, and his team created small silicon tubes that make fabric change shape when stimulated with an electrical current. They are currently working on making the diameter of the fabric about 0.1 millimeters. However, in order to make smart fabrics functional, the clothes need a computing unit to control and coordinate the technology.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are shaped like a long fiber could be woven into the textiles as a power source. Fink and his colleagues say the biggest challenge is determining what the fabric would look like.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a professor at Yale University, says “It will be challenging to make these clothes, filled with fibers and technology, durable enough to withstand multiple cycles in the laundry. The added bulk of specialized fibers could make wearable smart textiles uncomfortable or difficult to put on or take off.” Nonetheless, she believes that robotic clothing will soon become a popular product.
“Recent breakthroughs,” she said, “point toward a not-so-distant future where smart textiles will be a part of our everyday wardrobe.”
Sources:
Download
