Developing stretchable sensors and contracting textiles: Emerging technologies for wearable devices

可穿戴设备、机器人皮肤、软机器人、隐形电子和离子皮肤是迅速演变的研究主题，吸引了电子设备制造商、汽车巨头和医疗器械公司的注意。人们对创造智能面料和设备非常感兴趣，这些面料和设备可以折叠和拉伸，可以集成到服装中，可以作为机器上的皮肤使用，甚至可以在体内使用。我们的目标是通过以下贡献来刺激发展：*1.由卷曲的热驱动聚合物和纱线组成的致动织物，其长度收缩的程度与肌肉一样大，但具有更高的应力；*2.高度可拉伸和韧性的凝胶基薄膜，用于传感触摸、接近、压力、剪切和弯曲；*这些新兴技术将通过以下方式进一步开发：*1.向卷曲聚合物致动器添加捕捉状态，以消除它们在恒定负载下运行时的能量损失，因为提高了速度和建模负载依赖；*2.展示基于凝胶的离子皮肤传感器的新功能。*基于材料和机制的创新将为集成到设备中奠定基础，这些创新可能包括：*1.通过产生时变压力来促进腿部循环的服装；以及根据活动水平改变僵硬和透气性的服装。还可以提供短暂的间歇性活动(如从椅子上站起来)的辅助力量。活性织物还可以为低成本的类人机器人提供驱动手指的机制，或帮助康复；它们还可以提供对生物和化学战剂的保护。*2.用于检测睡眠状态和压疮的智能床单，以及帮助抓取和人类交互的机器人皮肤；*拟议的工作旨在推进基于材料的传感和驱动创新。随着这些创新达到可以应用于智能纺织品、可穿戴设备和健康/健身监测设备的地步，它们将作为行业的副产品发展。**

Wearable devices, robot skin, soft robotics, imperceptible electronics and ionic skin are rapidly evolving research themes that have attracted the attention of electronic device manufacturers, automotive giants and medical device companies. There is tremendous interest in creating intelligent fabrics and devices that can fold and stretch, be integrated into clothing, be applied as a skin on a machine, or even be used inside the body. We aim to spur on development by contributing:******1. Actuating fabrics composed of coiled heat-driven polymers and yarns that contract in length by as much as muscle does, but with much higher stresses;***2. Highly stretchable and tough gel-based thin films for sensing touch, proximity, pressure, shear and bending; and******These emerging technologies will be further developed by:***1. Adding a catch state to the coiled polymer actuators in order to remove energy loss when they are operating at constant load, as increasing speed and modeling load dependence;***2. Demonstrating new functionality in gel based ionic skin sensors.***The material and mechanism based innovations will set the stage for integration into devices that could include:***1. Garments that promote circulation in the legs by generating time varying pressure; and clothing that changes stiffness and breathability depending on level of activity. It may also be possible to provide assistive forces for short duration, intermittent activities (such as getting up from a chair). The active fabrics may also provide mechanisms for driving fingers in low cost humanoid robots, or help with rehabilitation; They may also provide protection from biological and chemical warfare agents.***2. Smart sheets for detecting sleep state, and pressure ulcers, as well as robot skin to help with grasp and human interaction;******The proposed work aims to focus on advancing the materials-based innovations in sensing and actuation. As these innovations reach the point where they are ready for application in smart textiles, wearables, and health/fitness monitoring devices, they will evolve as spin-off projects with industry.**