A Prototyping Platform to Fabricate Customized Actuators on Clothing using 3D Printing and Shape-Memory Alloys

In the project ClothTiles, we present a prototyping platform to fabricate actuators of clothing. ClothTiles leverage flexible 3D-printing and Shape-Memory Alloys (SMAs) alongside new parametric actuation designs. We explore the concept of fabric actuation using a base element and then systematically explore methods of aggregating, scaling, and orienting prospects for extended actuation in clothing.

Publications

Sachith Muthukumarana, Moritz Alexander Messerschmidt, Denys JC Matthies, Jürgen Steimle, Philipp M. Scholl, and Suranga Nanayakkara. "ClothTiles: A prototyping platform to fabricate customized actuators on clothing using 3D printing and shape-memory alloys." In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-12. 2021 [DOI ] [PDF ] [VIDEO ]

Press and Awards

Presented ClothTiles as a demonstration at Ars Electronica 2021 exhibition. This project was featured under the Garden Aotearoa New Zealand Mozilla Hub. Garden Aotearoa is New Zealand’s contribution to the International Ars Electronica Festival 2021. Ars Electronica is the world’s largest media festival, which is held annually in Linz, Austria. Placed at the intersection of art, technology and society, the five-day event attracts over 100,000 international visitors. [LINK ]