Blooming Knit Flowers: Loop-Linked Soft Morphing Structures for Soft Robotics

Min Woo Han, Sung Hoon Ahn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

96 Scopus citations

Abstract

Smart fibers were used to form needle and sinker loops, constructed through a combination of the polyester fibers wrapped around a smart material core made of a thermally reactive shape memory alloy in a study. The wrapped fibers were used to prevent short-circuiting at the points of contact in the looping yarn and to increase the friction coefficient for a stable actuation and fabrication of the complex geometries using knitting methods. Knitted loops were arranged by suspension in the horizontal (course) or vertical (wale) direction, known as the weft knitting method. The knitted structures showed outstanding elasticity compared to other types of textiles due to the number of interdependent loops, in which the space in each loop allows them to be elongated, widened, or distorted by external or internal forces.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1606580
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume29
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Apr 2017

Keywords

  • loop structures
  • smart materials
  • smart textiles
  • soft morphing
  • soft robots

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