Invited Speaker: Dr Amanda Mills

Dr Amanda Mills received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Mississippi State University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. Afterwards, she served as an industry project manager for the NEXT Research Lab. Amanda joined the Textile Engineering/Textile Technology Senior Design program as a program manager before transitioning to her current, co-director role. Most recently, she was a research assistant professor of textile engineering and textile technology in the Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science department .

Presently, she studies and develops innovative methods for electronics integration into textiles with the SHIFT lab. She creates full system demonstration platforms to examine the impact of the textile structure and material on device performance and vice versa. She works to develop novel all-textile sensors and actuators for physiological monitoring, acoustic recording, and thermal actuation among other applications. Other research activities include fabric simulation and modelling for digital design and virtual reality implementation.

Topic of Presentation: Application-Driven Integration Methods for E-Textile Systems

E-textile research and development is largely application driven, yielding highly specialized systems that address specific applications and industry sectors. Through the process of designing and fabricating such systems, other technical challenges, such as tuning machine parameters to accommodate unique material properties or creating novel assembly methods, become apparent, leading to the unique, innovative subsectors of e-textile research present in academic and industry today. Innovations in textile manufacturing are simultaneously occurring alongside efforts in shrinking the footprint of electronic components, making them more suitable for integration with e-textile systems. With a plethora of both traditional textile and electronic manufacturing techniques available in industry, identifying the appropriate assembly process for a particular application, where both intended electronic functionality and textile properties are maintained, can be challenging. This talk will present two emerging integration techniques for e-textiles and will discuss how the end use of the system influences not only material selection and product design but also the smart material integration technique.  

Further Presentations:

Wrist/Hand Position Identification using a Fully Knitted EMG Sleeve Kristel Fobelets, Aishwarya Anand, Kris Thielemans – Imperial College London

This study explores the development and evaluation of fully knitted electromyography (EMG) systems for identifying hand movements. Utilizing 17 small, knitted electrodes, we designed two implementations: an armband with 8 equidistant electrode pairs and a full sleeve with 8 electrode pairs placed close to specific muscles. EMG recordings were obtained for 6 distinct wrist/hand movements from a single volunteer, using the Cyton board for data acquisition. Despite challenges with motion noise due to the elasticity of the knit, our results demonstrate the feasibility of using these knitted systems for movement classification. Machine learning techniques, including k-nearest neighbors’ and neural network classifiers, were employed to analyse the features extracted from the data. Both implementations achieved an accuracy higher than 80% while the sleeve implementation showed slightly higher mean signal-to-noise ratios. Our findings indicate that fully knitted EMG systems offer a comfortable and wearable solution for long-term use, with potential applications in healthcare, sports, and humancomputer interfaces.

Wearable Air Cooling System for Microclimate Regulation in Fire Protective Clothing Severin Bernhart, Thomas Grah, Jannic Wälde, Mathias Schmoigl-Tonis, Andreas Salihovic, Otmar Schneider, Thomas Finkenzeller – Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft

Heat stress poses a significant challenge for firefighters, but it can be mitigated to some degree through cooling methods. A wearable air-cooling safety body network to be integrated into standardized fire brigade jackets for firefighting operationsis introduced. The required air flow and pressure were investigated, a textile sensor data-driven cooling trigger algorithm was developed, and an air tube based cooling actuator system was integrated. A participant study was conducted to evaluate the developed prototypes to test physical and subjective cooling effectivity during live-fire trainings. The system significantly reduces upper body skin temperature (p=0.04) and enhances thermal comfort (p=0.002). The system shows strong resilience against extreme heat and effectively mitigates firefighter heat stress in critical situations.

Designing Large Knitted Solar Textile and Power Management Solution to Power Wearable and Portable Devices Parvin Ebrahimi, Arash Moghaddassian Shahidi, Demosthenes Koutsogeorgis, Carlos Ferreira De Oliveira, Russell Metcalfe, Jake Kaner, Tilak Dias, Theodore Hughes-Riley – Nottingham Trent University

This work seeks to develop a large, knitted, solar textile for powering wearable and mobile devices. Building on the findings of our previous study, which focused on the fabrication and optimization of both the electrical performance -maximizing the output power- and textile properties—such as stretchability, flexibility, and breathability—of the knitted solar textile [1]. The next step in developing the solar energy harvesting E-textiles involves implementing effective power management for the large knitted solar fabric. Power management and regulation is especially important in energy-harvesting applications, where a constant power source is typically unavailable, and the small amounts of power harvested can vary unpredictably. For solar energy harvesting the level of light exposure on the solar cells can influence both the voltage and current collected and as a result, it is crucial to not only manage the available energy received, but the rate at which energy can be harvested and consumed. Given these factors, it becomes evident that, beyond optimizing the solar textile itself, the careful design and integration of a dynamic power management system are crucial. This study presents the design considerations for a large-scale knitted solar textile, alongside a power management framework specifically tailored for solar powered knitted applications. The framework addresses the management of distributed solar E-yarns, interconnections, and shading behaviour, while actively tracking the Maximum Power Point—tackling the unique challenges of fluctuating energy input and ensuring efficient energy utilization.

Development of Braided E-Textile Structures for Intelligent Cabling Monitoring Kevin Rodrigues, Marco Silva, Miguel Rocha, José Gonçalves – CeNTI

This study presents the development of braided etextile structures for smart cable monitoring, addressing temperature sensing and structural integrity in automotive applications. By integrating nickel-based hybrid wires and conductive sensor elements (silver-coated and steel-based) into braided configurations, the research evaluates their thermal and mechanical response under controlled conditions. The results demonstrate strong linearity and sensitivity in thermal detection and effective strain detection using both silver-coated and steelbased yarns. The influence of braiding parameters on sensor performance is also discussed. These findings highlight the potential of braided e-textiles for the next-generation cable systems in automotive vehicles.

Fully Textile Pixelated Thermochromic Display Alexander V. Shokurov, Marlon Meier, Carlo Menon – ETH Zurich

Textiles capable of displaying information are needed to make fully textile wearable devices with human readable output. Several technologies exist to achieve textile displays, but examples of versatile devices capable of displaying discrete pixels, and not a pre-determined pattern, are exceedingly rare. This work develops a textile display based on cotton dyed with thermochromic ink, capable of changing colour upon the application of mild heat. Colour transition is carried out by passing electric current through a sublayer of cotton imbued with conductive polymer polypyrrole. Conditions of the polypyrrole synthesis in the fabric are fine-tuned to produce material for optimal Joule heating. The multilayer textile is structured in such a way, so the electric heating, driven by a simple current supply relay circuit, produces a distinct square pattern of discoloration on the top thermochromic layer in controlled fashion. We identify thermal bleeding and slow actuation as some challenges of technology. However, the work proves possible the concept of using Joule heating conductive polymer fabric sandwiched between layers with orthogonal conductive yarns to reversibly discolour thermochromic ink in a specific spot of the fabric, thus acting as a pixel in a textile display for wearable applications.