Wearable Technologies and Smart Materials: Applications for Transportation and Safety

October 6, 2016

About the Seminar

Wearable technologies for health and wellness, sports and fitness, gaming, and safety have been widely adopted in recent years. These technologies have been enabled by the development of enhanced sensing capabilities. The functionality of future wearables may be further expanded to communicate real-time, safety-critical information via haptic feedback to the wearer. One way of creating these wearable feedback systems is to design multifunctional textile systems, called active textiles. Active textiles incorporate smart materials into textile structures.

This presentation discussed the design of active textiles, including textile structures (e.g., knit, weave, and stitch) and smart materials (e.g., shape memory alloy, shape memory polymer, electro-active polymer, and piezoelectric). Details related to active knits, a specific active textile, were presented. The integration of smart materials into textile structures may enable advancements in wearable technologies for transportation and safety.

Webcast

About the Speaker

Julianna Abel is a Benjamin Mayhugh Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. She is also affiliated with the MnDRIVE Robotics, Sensors, and Advanced Manufacturing Initiative. Her research interests lie in the model-based design of smart material technologies. Her research combines analytical modeling and experimental characterization to establish frameworks for the design and synthesis of smart material technologies for innovative robotic systems.