Knitting and weaving artificial muscles could help create soft exoskeletons that people with disabilities could wear under their clothes to help them walk, according to new research. Textile processing is one of humanity's oldest technologies, but in recent years there has been renewed interest in using it to create "smart" textiles that can do everything from harvest power from the environment to monitor our health.

Now, Swedish researchers have created actuators — devices that convert energy into motion — from cellulose yarn coated with a polymer that reacts to electricity. These fibers were then woven and knitted using standard industrial machines to create textile actuators, dubbed "textuators" by the researchers.

Exoskeletons can be used to boost humans' weight-lifting abilities or help the disabled walk, but they rely on electric motors or pneumatic systems that are bulky, noisy and stiff. The researchers say their approach could one day help mass-produce soft and silent exoskeletons using textile-processing technology, as well as actuators for soft robotics."Our dream is suits you can wear under your clothing — hidden exoskeletons to help the elderly, help those recovering from injury, maybe one day make disabled people walk again," said Edwin Jager, an associate professor in applied physics at Linköping University in Sweden, who led the research.

The team started with cellulose yarn, which is biocompatible and renewable, and knitted and weaved it into a variety of textiles. These textiles were then coated with a conducting polymer called polypyrrole (PPy) using a process similar to how commercial fabrics are dyed. PPy has been widely used to create soft actuators because it changes its size when a low voltage is applied to it, thanks to ions and solvents moving in and out of the polymer matrix. As this material coats the fiber, it contracts when a positive voltage is applied and expands when a negative voltage is applied.

At present, the material still needs to be submerged in a liquid electrolyte, which serves as a source of ions for the PPy. The material also responds much more slowly than mammalian muscle, taking minutes to fully expand or contract.
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Source : http://www.livescience.com/57631-smart-exosuit-fabric-could-boost-mobility.html

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