Design, textiles, and sustainable development (DesTex)

The aim of the project was to establish an open, dynamic, and long-lived ecosystem for research, innovation, and education in the field of smart textiles.

The initiative was based on combining the expertise of the University of Borås (design and textile technology) and the University of Skövde (interaction design, material mechanics, information technology, user-centred design, and modelling), thereby enhancing the institutions’ ability to maintain and develop their leading positions in these fields.

The ambition was to identify new application areas for textiles, thereby strengthening the long-term competitiveness and innovative capacity of the Swedish textile industry.

The project facilitated collaboration in the areas of smart textiles and tactile robotics. The research conducted within the project significantly strengthened the university’s research in human-robot interaction, which has since become a major focus for several researchers at the university.

Three areas of research

1. Research within the development of materials, technology, ICT solutions and applications for using smart textiles within health promoting and ergonomic functional clothes (this as an example, whereas results can be applicable in other domains as well).
2. Research within materials and ICT solutions for soft robotics based on smart textiles.
3. Research about how smart textiles can be used to support interaction between humans and technology, e.g. human-robot/humanoid interaction.

Research areas/groups involved

University of Borås

• Textiles and Fashion

University of Skövde

• InteractionLab (School of Informatics)
• User Centred Product Design (School of Engineering Science)
• Mechanics of Materials (School of Engineering Science)

Dissemination activities

• Roboten Pepper vässas med hjälp av smarta textilier (SVT, Jun 2018)
• Pepper – den känsliga roboten (BT, Jun 2018)
• Roboten Pepper känner vad användaren vill (FT, Jun 2018)
• Se högskolans smarta robot: Pepper (Borås DLY, Jun 2018)
• Mänskliga robotar får vänta för Volvo (SN, Nov 2017)
• Att umgås med en robot (SLA, Nov 2017)
• Mänskligt utseende viktigt när tekniken ska kommunicera (SN, Nov 2017)
• Fick besök av kända robotforskare (Metal Supply, Dec 2016)

Dissemination activities related to the preceeding project (2013–2015, VGR funded):

• Video 1 – SVT2 (YouTube)
• Video 2 (YouTube)

Publications

Journal publications

B. Zhou, C. A. V. Altamirano, H. Cruz, S. R. Atefi, E. A. Billing, F. Seoane, & P. Lukowicz (2017). Textile pressure mapping sensor for emotional touch detection in human-robot interaction. Sensors, 17(11), 1–16.

R. Lowe, R. Andreasson, B. Alenljung, A. Lund, and E. A. Billing (2017) Designing for a Wearable Affective Interface for the NAO Robot: A Study of Emotion Conveyance by Touch. Submitted to Multimodal Technologies and Interaction.

Conference papers

J. Sun., E. A. Billing, F. Seoane, B. Zhou, D. Högberg, P. Hemeren (2017) Categories of touch: Classifying human touch using a soft tactile sensor. The robotic sense of touch: from sensing to understanding, workshop at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 29, Singapore.

B. Zhou, H. Z. Cruz, S. R. Atefi, E. A. Billing, F. Seoane, P. Lukowicz (2017) TouchMe: Full-textile Touch Sensitive Skin for Encouraging Human-Robot Interaction. The robotic sense of touch: from sensing to understanding, workshop at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 29, Singapore.

A. Mohsenzadeh, T. Bashir, W. Tahir, K. Bolton, M. Skrivfars, U. Stigh (2017) The actuation of a semi-crystalline poly(vinyliden fluoride) tie molecules: A computational and experimental study. 19th international conference on polymers and composites, Prague, Czech Republic, September 4-5.

V. Malm, F. Seoane, V. Nierstrasz (2017) Characterisation of electrical and stiffness properties of conductive textile coatings with metal flake-shaped fillers. Submitted for publication

V. Malm, F. Seoane, V. Nierstrasz (2017) Stability of encapsualted electrical interconnections coated on fabric exposed to mechanical strain. To be submitted for publication

R. Andreasson, B. Alenljung, E. A. Billing, R. Lowe (2017) Affective Touch in Human-Robot Interaction: Conveying Emotion to the Nao Robot. Accepted for publication in International Journal of Social Robotics.

J. Sun, S. Redyuk, E. A. Billing, D. Högberg, P. Hemeren (2017) Tactile Interaction and Social Touch: Classifying Human Touch using a Soft Tactile Sensor. In the Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Human Agent Interaction, October 17-20, | CITEC, Bielefeld.

B. Alenljung, R. Andreasson, E. A. Billing, J. Lindblom, R. Lowe (2017) User Experience of Conveying Emotions by Touch. In the proceedings of the 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2017, Lisbon, Portugal, p. 1240-1247.

F. Syrén, C. Li, E. A. Billing, A. Lund (2016) Characterization of textile resistive strain sensors. 16th World Textile Conference AUTEX 2016, Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 8-10.