'Tendon-based' knitting holds promise for physical rehabilitation of after disease or injury
26 August 2019
Knit Alive
The word ‘robot’ might conjure up images of cogs and bolts, but these soft robots are knitted out of wool or silk. Nestled in their stuffing, clever stitches create tendons similar to those found pulling our muscles. A tug on one of these may make a bunny’s ears flop, or a scarf rearrange itself. Woolly robots present a new avenue for wearable technology that could adapt to the weather or time of day using sensors to feedback information to tiny motors pulling their strings. A step forward for fashion, perhaps, but also for creating smart devices that respond to changes in pressure to help with rehabilitation after injury, or body temperature to give a warm hug to those who need it most.
Written by
- Video by Lea Albaugh, Prof. Scott Hudson & Prof. Lining Yao Morphing Matter & DevLab, Carnegie Mellon Uni. Human Computer Interaction Inst.
- Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Video copyright held by the original authors
- Research published in CHI '19 Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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