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Textiles hold great promise as a soft yet durable material for building comfortable robotic wearables and assistive devices at low cost. Nevertheless, the development of smart wearables composed entirely of textiles has been hindered by the lack of a viable sheet-based logic architecture that can be implemented using conventional fabric materials and textile manufacturing processes. Here, we develop a fully textile platform for embedding pneumatic digital logic in wearable devices. Our logic-enabled textiles support combinational and sequential logic functions, onboard memory storage, user interaction, and direct interfacing with pneumatic actuators. In addition, they are designed to be lightweight, easily integrable into regular clothing, made using scalable fabrication techniques, and durable enough to withstand everyday use. We demonstrate a textile computer capable of input-driven digital logic for controlling untethered wearable robots that assist users with functional limitations. Our logic platform will facilitate the emergence of future wearables powered by embedded fluidic logic that fully leverage the innate advantages of their textile construction.
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Development and evaluation of pneumatic actuators for pediatric upper extremity rehabilitation devices
Textile pneumatic actuators were developed to provide full assistance to lift the arm of a model of an 11-year-old male beyond 120 degrees of shoulder abduction. Two fabrics and a variety of sealing techniques, methods of attachment, and actuator shapes were comparatively evaluated using textile and functional tests. The results identified that both fabrics and one of the three sealing techniques were effective for creating air-tight, functional actuators. Actuators were more effective when the bands attaching them were closer to the axilla. Rectangular and wing-shaped actuators, both lifting the model of an 11-year-old male’s arm above 120 degrees of abduction, were more effective than Y-shaped actuators. Multiple designs and materials may be acceptable for building textile pneumatic actuators to lift the full weight of a child’s arm. Compared to traditional hard robots, soft assistive robots offer key potential benefits related to comfort, aesthetics, weight, bulk, and cost.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1722596
- PAR ID:
- 10285965
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Journal of The Textile Institute
- ISSN:
- 0040-5000
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 8
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00405000.2021.1929704
