Is it a robot? Is it a coat? It’s a Korean superhero!

The real-life superhero costume has arrived. A team of researchers from South Korea has invented a “muscular” fabric that allows them to create robotic clothing that increases the user’s strength by 40%.

Scientists at the Advanced Robotics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have created a new process for weaving ultrafine fibers into artificial muscle tissue.

This new material allows you to create wearable robotic clothing which, according to tests carried out, can increase the user’s strength and reduce muscle load by up to 40%.

Although wearable robots designed with this new fabric weaving process are, for now, limited to the laboratory phase, the KIMM research team is already working on prototypes aimed at people suffering from strength and mobility limitations.

In statements to , Cheol Hoon Parkprincipal researcher at KIMM and responsible for the wearable robot project, explained that many countries are entering a phase of “super-aged” societyand it is expected that the demand for wearable robotic technology able to increase strength and mobility grow sharply.

Park emphasizes, however, that for such technologies to become more widely accessible, it is necessary overcome the limitations of current technologies. «They have to be light, comfortable to use and affordable in terms of price».

Conventional wearable robots designed to provide strength and support to joints such as the shoulder, elbow and wrist, depend on heavy engines and noisy or pneumatic actuators.

These components make systems bulkyexpensive and uncomfortable to use, especially over periods of prolonged use.

The answer to this limitation has been a greater focus on wearable robots simpler, single-jointed. Still, assisting large, complex joints like the shoulder remains a major obstacle.

Park’s team has now created a system to intertwine tissue muscles into clothing, thus achieving a scalable method for mass production of wearable robotic clothing that is quiet, compact, easy to use and consumes very little energy.

Instead of the pneumatic actuators or bulky electric motors typically used to add power to human muscles and joints, the team created their tissue muscles using tiny fibers from a “Shape Memory League” (SMA).

SMA are materials that recover their original shape when exposed to high temperatures or pressures.

For this application, the team used a strand of SMA with a diameter of 25 μm — approximately a quarter of the width of a human hair. Next, the researchers turned the individual strands into a spring-wound “thread,” which, similar to traditional textile thread, allows continuous weaving of muscles into tissue.

As Park explained, the SMA spring fibers that make up the muscles contract when heated to “about 40 to 50 °C. However, he notes, the user is unlikely to feel the material heating up, so this could exert a directional force to aid muscle movement and reduce the load on the joints, «thanks to a layer of insulating fabric».

“Just like human muscles, tissue muscle contracts as it heats up and relaxes as it cools down,” notes the researcher.

The wearable robot is powered by a 200g battery mounted on the back of the jacket, which also includes a compact controller for changing settings. The force of contraction exerted by tissue muscles can be altered by modifying “the intensity and duration of the electrical current” supplied to the SMA fibers.

According to the team, KIMM’s wearable robot prototype, a jacket with embedded SMA fiber muscles, was able to provide assistance simultaneously to the user’s elbow, shoulder and waist.

Tests showed that the coat, weighing less than 2 kilos, managed reduce muscular effort by more than 40% during repetitive physical tasks. It is worth noting that the 10 g of wearable robotic fabric that constitutes the core of the system can support between 10 and 15 kilograms.

«We hope this technology can help people who have difficulty walking on ramps or stairs, or standing for long periods», explained the person responsible for the project.

Despite the potential applications of the team’s fiber muscle weaving process, including «super soldiers» with increased strengthPark hopes the tissue muscle he created will help make wearable robotics more accessible and, ultimately, the improve the quality of life of many people.