Knitting is no longer limited to making familiar items such as sweaters, hats, and blankets.
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have shown that conventional knitting techniques can be used to create functional fabrics capable of changing shape, sensing movement, and operating as switches. The approach could help advance a new generation of programmable textiles.
The team developed specialized, machine-knitted fabrics that can "snap" from one stable shape to another. Physicists describe this ability to maintain multiple stable configurations as multistability.
The research was led by recent Ph.D. graduate Kausalya Mahadevan, who is now a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Katia Bertoldi, the William and Ami Kuan Danoff Professor of Applied Mechanics. The findings were published in Advanced Functional Materials.
Bringing Physics Into Knitted Textiles
