A Canadian government-backed research consortium is developing assistive clothing that integrates sensing and actuation directly into fabric, aiming to make mobility support feel like everyday wear. Led by the University of Alberta, the six-year project brings together Rice University engineers to build washable, comfortable garments that support posture, movement and balance without bulky external devices.
- The approach embeds actuation, sensing, power routing and control within fibres and knitted or woven structures, allowing garments to assist movement while preserving comfort and familiar clothing aesthetics.
- Researchers are prioritising reliability, washability and all-day wear, with on-garment control systems designed to keep computation local.
- The project roadmap outlines staged garment applications addressing multiple mobility-support needs.
THE FUNDING FRAMEWORK: The initiative is anchored in a six-year, $24 million Canadian dollar award under Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund. The funding structure enables the consortium to pursue iterative garment development, extended testing cycles and multi-year collaboration. Its scope accommodates prototype fabrication, characterisation and refinement over several years.
- The award framework supports sustained collaboration across institutions, allowing technical, design and usability work to evolve in parallel.
- Its scope explicitly accommodates prototype fabrication, characterisation and refinement over several years rather than fixed early deliverables.
- The long funding horizon underwrites graduate training and cross-lab exchanges built into the programme’s design.
HOW THE GARMENTS WORK: The research effort centres on moving both sensing and actuation into the fabric itself, allowing garments to provide assistance without rigid frames or add-on hardware. Work led by Rice University teams focuses on fibre-level actuators, textile-embedded sensors and garment-integrated control systems designed to operate reliably under everyday wear and laundering conditions.
- Textile-native manufacturing methods are being used to knit or weave actuation, sensing and power-routing functions directly into garment structures.
- Embedded control keeps computation local to the garment, improving power efficiency and reducing reliance on external devices.
- Design priorities emphasise unobtrusive assistance so garments move with the wearer rather than imposing mechanical constraints.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: The consortium has defined a staged development plan that translates laboratory advances into wearable prototypes through clearly bounded use cases. Rather than finalise devices late, the programme integrates fabrication, testing and user feedback throughout, ensuring technical performance and wearability evolve together over the research period.
- Three escalating applications guide development: posture support garments, smart sleeves to assist arm movement, and lower-body wear designed to aid balance and sit-to-stand transitions.
- Near-term work includes building wash-durable sensors and actuators compatible with standard knitting and weaving processes.
- Co-design with people who have lived experience of mobility limitations is embedded into prototyping, testing and public feedback cycles, alongside planned student exchanges and visiting lab rotations between partner institutions.
- The programme includes training for two doctoral researchers, with additional undergraduate and master’s students contributing across participating institutions.
- Public art-and-technology festivals are planned at the project’s midpoint and conclusion to showcase progress, gather feedback and highlight inclusive design outcomes.
WHAT THEY SAID
Our goal is to create clothing that looks and feels like what people already love to wear. If we can embed intelligence and comfort into everyday garments, we can change how people experience mobility assistance.
— Vanessa Sanchez
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Rice University
The challenge is to make the assistance we provide feel as natural as fabric itself — responsive but unobtrusive and almost imperceptible. We want these garments to move with people, not on them.
— Daniel J. Preston
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Rice University
