Image Courtesy: The Canberra Times
The research team of The University of NSW Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering (Australia) has developed a shape-shifting smart textile that has the potential to help people with disabilities walk again.
The material is, reportedly, constructed from tiny, soft artificial muscle fibres that can turn a two-dimensional material into 3D structures.
Thanh Nho Do, who led the project, explains the material’s artificial ‘muscles’ are long silicon tubes filled with fluid which are manipulated using hydraulics.
The shape-shifting material can move like a robot and the ‘muscles’ can be programmed to contract or expand into a variety of shapes.
Dr. Do envisages the fabric could be used as a medical compression device with its thin, flexible and highly conformable structure offering better outcomes for people needing help with movement.
“We have given our smart textiles the expansion and contraction ability in the exact same way as human muscle fibres,” Dr. Do commented, adding that the people with poor blood circulation could also benefit from smart garments that contract to apply pressure to superficial veins and help with blood supply.
Another application of the smart textile is in athleticwear as the athletes could also use compression garments to recover faster and reduce muscle soreness after training.
Indicating at the greatest use of these newly developed textiles, Dr. Do mentioned, “We envision our material could be used to develop soft exoskeletons to enable people with disabilities to walk again or augment the human performance. Most existing technologies in that field are still based around rigid robotic suits. But it is our hope that we could create a lightweight, soft exoskeleton that looks and feels just like leggings which can be worn like normal clothing. This could then aid those with impaired mobility to walk.”
