Programmable embroidered pressure sensors and e-textile integration — advancing textile-based platforms for health monitoring, human–machine interaction, and assistive robotics.
E-textiles and smart fabrics occupy a unique position in wearable technology: they are inherently conformal to the human body, washable, mechanically robust under repeated deformation, and socially unobtrusive. This project developed textile-integrated sensing capabilities across multiple physical modalities — pressure and triboelectric charge — with a focus on manufacturing simplicity (programmable embroidery) that enables practical deployment in health monitoring and human–robot interaction.
This work bridges the gap between laboratory demonstrations and manufacturable, reproducible textile sensors. The programmable embroidery approach in particular introduces a pathway to digitally controlled, large-area pressure sensing arrays with customizable spatial resolution — directly applicable to prosthetics, rehabilitation garments, and soft robotic interfaces.
Thread connecting all five projects: E-textile and foam were the triboelectric materials throughout this research program. The smart textiles work closes the loop — advancing from using textiles as passive energy harvesters (WearETE) to developing textiles as active, programmable sensing elements. The programmable embroidery pressure sensor represents the most recent extension of this trajectory toward assistive robotics applications.
Programmable embroidery enables digitally controlled pressure sensor fabrication with tunable spatial resolution — suitable for soft robotic grippers, rehabilitation garments, and prosthetic interfaces.
Foam and e-textile as active triboelectric materials underpin the energy harvesting and motion sensing work throughout this research program, connecting smart textile fabrication to the broader system level.