When the knit becomes the robot

Rice University mechanical engineer Vanessa Sanchez is developing knitted structures in which sensing, movement and mechanical behaviour are programmed into the textile rather than attached as separate components. Her project, “Programmable 3D-Knitted Soft Robotic Textiles for Human-Centered Mobility,” has received a Toyota Programmable System Innovation Fellowship.

Rice points to applications including vehicle seats that reshape around occupants, garments that assist walking and soft safety systems capable of responding to impending impacts.

The work uses knitting as a manufacturing architecture. By varying yarns, stitch geometry and local structural behaviour, the textile can be designed to produce functions that conventional soft-robotic systems may achieve with separate sensors, actuators or rigid elements.

Three-dimensional knitting is particularly important because form can be created during manufacture rather than assembled from multiple flat components. That approach could reduce seams and interfaces while retaining the softness and conformity expected from textiles.

Sanchez will use the fellowship to develop the programmable structures further and explore mobility-oriented applications.