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Autonomously adapting and communicating modular textiles

Project description

Fabrics smart enough to respond

The smart fabrics and interactive textiles industry is continuously flourishing due to its promising and revolutionary solutions for a vast range of applications such as emergency response, healthcare and eco-friendly manufacturing. The EU-funded ModelCom project aims to contribute to a paradigm shift for smart soft materials in user-customisable textiles that autonomously interact with their environment and communicate through changes in colour or shape. The innovative product will be created by coupling modular thermo- and photo-actuators to the traditional European fibre art of bobbin lace. These functional textiles could potentially be used in clothes or window shades, e.g. adapting their warming/cooling capacity based on external temperature or solar illumination. Similar applications would indirectly decrease the need for heating/cooling in many buildings and contribute to energy savings.

Objective

This project contributes to a paradigm shift for smart soft materials into user-customizable textiles that autonomously interact with their environment and communicate through changes in color or shape. This will be done by coupling modular thermo- and photo-actuators to the traditional European fiber art of bobbin lace. The envisioned color-shape-communicative textile networks will include an on/off command of embedded functionalities by modifying an established concept – coiled yarn thermoactuators – to have different selective coatings on inner and outer surfaces of the coils. Furthermore, I will create unprecedented photoactuating coiled yarns, in which visible light turns on the functionality in a thread. The developed non-conformal coating techniques will also enable multifunctional threads, in which different parts of the thread can be commanded by different wavelengths of light.
I will also develop two-dimensional multifunctional structures using these thermo- and photo-actuating threads as building blocks. The modularity of these building blocks, combined with the multiple thread system and three different braiding actions of bobbin lace, will enable a wide combinatorial parameter space for interactive network structures.
I will demonstrate a textile that can, either upon illumination or thermal stimulus, change its color, its breathability/permeability, and activate a third function, such as colorimetric detection of a biomarker. These textiles could be used in clothes or window shades, e.g. adapting their warming/cooling capacity based on the external temperature or solar illumination. Such functional textiles would indirectly decrease the need for heating/cooling many buildings and allow energy savings, thus providing an important economic opportunity. Co-creating further textile innovations with communities of bobbin lacemakers will ensure that the impact of the action goes beyond the conventional in terms of both technological and societal impact.

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Topic(s)

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG

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Host institution

AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 499 998,00
Address
OTAKAARI 1
02150 Espoo
Finland

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Region
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 499 998,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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