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Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles
Researchers from the Advanced Robotics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have discovered how to make ultra-thin, shape memory alloy coil yarn, thinner than a human hair.
(Wearable robots KIMM team)
Led by Principal Researcher Cheol Hoon Park, the team’s system uses 25-micrometer-wide shape memory alloy (SMA) wire processed into coil-shaped yarn to create fabric muscles that can lift 10 to 15 kilograms while weighing just 10 grams.This is a key advancement in the long quest to make wearable robots practical for everyday use. Traditional systems rely on bulky, noisy motors or pneumatic actuators that restrict motion and are uncomfortable for extended wear.
KIMM’s fabric muscle, by contrast, mimics the structure and flexibility of human tissue, allowing wearable robots to move more naturally and assist multiple joints simultaneously.
To achieve continuous production, the researchers replaced the metallic core in earlier SMA coils with natural fiber and redesigned both the weaving machine and the actuator’s structure.
(Via InterestingEngineering.)
Consider the Quasi-Muscles (Sham Musculature) from HG Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds.
it is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature of the disks in an elastic sheath; these disks become polarised and drawn closely and powerfully together when traversed by a current of electricity. In this way the curious parallelism to animal motions, which was so striking and disturbing to the human beholder, was attained.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/5/2025)
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