Programmable and Scalable Embroidery Textile Resistive Pressure Sensors for Integrated Multifunctional Smart Wearable Systems

Abstract

Conformable and breathable textile structures are ideal for flexible wearable pressure sensors, yet challenges remain in scalable fabrication, easy integration, and programmability. This study presents a cost-effective and customizable method to create fully textile-based pressure sensors using machine embroidery, enabling seamless integration into smart wearable systems. Two sensing configurations were developed: a single-layer satin block embroidered with conductive yarn, which exhibited high piezoresistivity, fast response (35 ms), quick recovery (16 ms), and robust durability over 5000 press-and-release cycles, proven effective for monitoring activities such as plantar pressure and muscle contraction, and making it suitable for personalized health and fitness applications. The second configuration, a double-layer embroidery sensor with a conductive path and two parallel spacers anchored beneath a satin block, allows for array integration with minimal wiring, demonstrated by a 3 × 3 sensing array that, with the help of a convolutional neural network (CNN) machine learning model, accurately recognized handwritten numbers (0–9) with a 98.5% accuracy, showing its potential for user authentication and secure passcode entry. These findings underscore the potential of machine embroidery for developing scalable, integrated, and high-performance intelligent textile systems, paving the way for wearable technologies that are customizable, comfortable, and aesthetically appealing for a wide range of applications.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

Smart textiles / Human augmentation / Health monitoring / Interactive control / User verification / Machine learning / Information and Computing Sciences / Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing / Engineering / Electrical and Electronic Engineering

References

[1] LibanoriA, ChenG, ZhaoX, ZhouY, ChenJ. Smart textiles for personalized healthcare. Nat Electron, 2022, 5: 142.

[2] Gujar S, Vishwakarma D. Wearable Sensor Market - By Type (Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Image/Optical Sensor, Temperature & Humidity Sensor, Pressure Sensor, Proximity Sensor), By Application (Eyewear, Wristwear, Bodywear, Footwear), By Vertical & Forecast, 2024 – 2032: Global Market Insights Inc.2024 Feb, 2024. Report No.: GMI8343.

[3] ChenY, YangY, LiM, ChenE, MuW, FisherR, YinR. Wearable actuators: an overview. Textiles, 2021, 1: 283.

[4] ZhuD, ZhangZ, ChenM, LiP, XiangY, OuyangJ, HuangZ, LiuX, WangF, YangM, ZengH, HongP, WeiL, HouC, TaoG. A perspective on rhythmic gymnastics performance analysis powered by intelligent fabric. Adv Fiber Mater, 2023, 5: 1.

[5] ChenY, HuaJ, LingY, LiuY, ChenM, JuB, GaoW, MillsA, TaoX, YinR. An airflow-driven system for scalable production of nano-microfiber wrapped triboelectric yarns for wearable applications. Chem Eng J, 2023, 477. 147026

[6] YangY, LiuY, YinR. Fiber-shaped fluidic pumps for wearable applications. Adv Fiber Mater, 2023, 5: 1552.

[7] ZengK, ShiX, TangC, LiuT, PengH. Design, fabrication and assembly considerations for electronic systems made of fibre devices. Nat Rev Mater, 2023, 8: 552.

[8] HouZ, LiuX, TianM, ZhangX, QuL, FanT, MiaoJ. Smart fibers and textiles for emerging clothe-based wearable electronics: materials, fabrications and applications. J Mater Chem A, 2023, 11: 17336.

[9] ZhouX, WangZ, XiongT, HeB, WangZ, ZhangH, HuD, LiuY, YangC, LiQ, ChenM, ZhangQ, WeiL. Fiber crossbars: an emerging architecture of smart electronic textiles. Adv Mater, 2023, 35: 2300576.

[10] YuR, WangC, DuX, BaiX, TongY, ChenH, SunX, YangJ, MatsuhisaN, PengH, ZhuM, PanS. In-situ forming ultra-mechanically sensitive materials for high-sensitivity stretchable fiber strain sensors. Natl Sci Rev, 2024.

[11] YangY, ChenE, LiM, LiB, MuW, YinRMondalMIH. Smart e-textiles in sensors, actuators, and computing systems. Smart textiles from natural resources, 2024Woodhead Publishing443-470.

[12] HeG, NingF, LiuX, MengY, LeiZ, MaX, TianM, LiuX, ZhangX, ZhangX, QuL. High-performance and long-term stability of MXene/PEDOT:PSS-decorated cotton yarn for wearable electronics applications. Adv Fiber Mater, 2024, 6: 367.

[13] XuD, OuyangZ, DongY, YuH-Y, ZhengS, LiS, TamKC. Robust, breathable and flexible smart textiles as multifunctional sensor and heater for personal health management. Adv Fiber Mater, 2023, 5: 282.

[14] ZhaoX, ZhaoS, ZhangX, SuZ. Recent progress in flexible pressure sensors based on multiple microstructures: from design to application. Nanoscale, 2023, 15: 5111.

[15] WangX, YuJ, CuiY, LiW. Research progress of flexible wearable pressure sensors. Sens Actuators A, 2021, 330. 112838

[16] MiaoZ, YuR, BaiX, DuX, YangZ, ZhouT, ZhuM, PanS. Versatile graphene/polyelectrolyte aqueous dispersion for fiber-based wearable sensors and electroluminescent devices. Sci China Mater, 2024, 67: 1915.

[17] WangY, AdamML, ZhaoY, ZhengW, GaoL, YinZ, ZhaoH. Machine learning-enhanced flexible mechanical sensing. Nano-Micro Lett, 2023, 15: 55.

[18] DaiN, LeiIM, LiZ, LiY, FangP, ZhongJ. Recent advances in wearable electromechanical sensors—moving towards machine learning-assisted wearable sensing systems. Nano Energy, 2023, 105. 108041

[19] SunT, FengB, HuoJ, XiaoY, WangW, PengJ, LiZ, DuC, WangW, ZouG, LiuL. Artificial intelligence meets flexible sensors: emerging smart flexible sensing systems driven by machine learning and artificial synapses. Nano-Micro Lett, 2023, 16: 14.

[20] WenF, ZhangZ, HeT, LeeC. AI enabled sign language recognition and VR space bidirectional communication using triboelectric smart glove. Nat Commun, 2021, 12: 5378.

[21] ChenZ, LinW, ZhangC, XuY, WeiC, HuH, LiaoX, ChenZ. Multifunctional and reconfigurable electronic fabrics assisted by artificial intelligence for human augmentation. Adv Fiber Mater, 2023, 6: 229.

[22] NguyenT, DinhT, PhanH-P, PhamTA, DauVT, NguyenN-T, DaoDV. Advances in ultrasensitive piezoresistive sensors: from conventional to flexible and stretchable applications. Mater Horiz, 2021, 8: 2123.

[23] LeeD, LeeH, JeongY, AhnY, NamG, LeeY. Highly sensitive, transparent, and durable pressure sensors based on sea-urchin shaped metal nanoparticles. Adv Mater, 2016, 28: 9364.

[24] HeJ, ZhangY, ZhouR, MengL, ChenT, MaiW, PanC. Recent advances of wearable and flexible piezoresistivity pressure sensor devices and its future prospects. J Materiomics, 2020, 6: 86.

[25] PostER, OrthM, RussoPR, GershenfeldN. E-broidery: Design and fabrication of textile-based computing. IBM Syst J, 2000, 39: 840.

[26] Wang Q, Zeng Y, Zhang R, Ye N, Zhu L, Sun X, Han T EmTex: Prototyping Textile-Based Interfaces through An Embroidered Construction Kit. Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology; San Francisco, CA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery; 2023 pp 1–17.

[27] Holleis P, Schmidt A, Paasovaara S, Puikkonen A, Häkkilä J. Evaluating capacitive touch input on clothes. Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Association for Computing Machinery; 2008. pp. 81–90.

[28] AnkhiliA, ZamanSU, TaoX, CochraneC, KoncarV, CoulonD. How to connect conductive flexible textile tracks to skin electrocardiography electrodes and protect them against washing. IEEE Sens J, 2019, 19: 11995.

[29] ChenY, ChenE, WangZ, LingY, FisherR, LiM, HartJ, MuW, GaoW, TaoX, YangB, YinR. Flexible, durable, and washable triboelectric yarn and embroidery for self-powered sensing and human-machine interaction. Nano Energy, 2022, 104. 107929

[30] ChenY, LingY, YangY, WangZ, LiuY, GaoW, YangB, TaoX, YinR. A clickable embroidered triboelectric sensor for smart fabric. Device, 2024, 2: 100355.

[31] Forman J, Afsar OK, Nicita S, Lin RH-J, Yang L, Hofmann M, Kothakonda A, Gordon Z, Honnet C, Dorsey K, Gershenfeld N, Ishii H. FibeRobo: Fabricating 4D Fiber Interfaces by Continuous Drawing of Temperature Tunable Liquid Crystal Elastomers. Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology; San Francisco, CA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery; 2023. pp. 1–17.

[32] Julie H, Jiri N, Stanislav B. Smart Textile Speaker. 4th PCNS Passive Components Networking Symposium; 14th September 2023; Sønderborg, Denmark: European Passive Components Institute; 2023.

[33] Kimmer CJ, Han MS, Harnett CK, editors. Strained Elastic Surfaces with Adjustable-Modulus Edges (SESAMEs) for Soft Robotic Actuation. 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA); 2023 29 May-2 June 2023 2023.

[34] ZadaM, ImanUR, BasirA, YooH. Battery-free digitally embroidered smart textile energy harvester for wearable healthcare IoTs. ITIE, 2024, 71: 9865

[35] ChoS, ChangT, YuT, GongSL, LeeCH. Machine embroidery of light-emitting textiles with multicolor electroluminescent threads. Sci Adv, 2024, 10: eadk4295.

[36] ParkS, AhnS, SunJ, BhatiaD, ChoiD, YangKS, BaeJ, ParkJ-J. Highly bendable and rotational textile structure with prestrained conductive sewing pattern for human joint monitoring. Adv Funct Mater, 2019, 29: 1808369.

[37] Colli AlfaroJG, TrejosAL. Design and fabrication of embroidered textile strain sensors: an alternative to stitch-based strain sensors. Sensors, 2023, 23: 1503.

[38] LiuZ, ZhengY, JinL, ChenK, ZhaiH, HuangQ, ChenZ, YiY, UmarM, XuL, LiG, SongQ, YueP, LiY, ZhengZ. Highly breathable and stretchable strain sensors with insensitive response to pressure and bending. Adv Funct Mater, 2021, 31: 2007622.

[39] Aigner R, Pointner A, Preindl T, Parzer P, Haller M. Embroidered resistive pressure sensors: a novel approach for textile interfaces. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; Honolulu, HI, USA: Association for Computing Machinery; 2020. pp. 1–13.

[40] Wu TY, Xu Z, Yang XD, Hodges S, Seyed T. Project tasca: enabling touch and contextual interactions with a pocket-based textile sensor. In: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Yokohama, Japan: Association for Computing Machinery; 2021. pp. 1–13.

[41] ZhaoM, XuH, ZhongW, MingX, LiM, HuX, JiaK, WangD. Robust and breathable all-textile gait analysis platform based on LeNet convolutional neural networks and embroidery technique. Sens Actuators A, 2023, 360. 114549

[42] Saenz-CogolloJF, PauM, FraboniB, BonfiglioA. Pressure mapping mat for tele-home care applications. Sensors, 2016, 16: 365.

[43] XieY, WuX, HuangX, LiangQ, DengS, WuZ, YaoY, LuL. A deep learning-enabled skin-inspired pressure sensor for complicated recognition tasks with ultralong life. Research, 2023, 6: 0157.

[44] LiS, GuY, WuG, DongK, JiaM, ZhangD, XiaoX. A flexible piezoresistive sensor with highly elastic weave pattern for motion detection. Smart Mater Struct, 2019, 28. 035020

[45] ZhangW, GuoQ, DuanY, XingC, PengZ. A textile proximity/pressure dual-mode sensor based on magneto-straining and piezoresistive effects. IEEE Sens J, 2022, 22: 10420.

[46] ChenJ, ZhangJ, HuJ, LuoN, SunF, VenkatesanH, ZhaoN, ZhangY. Ultrafast-response/recovery flexible piezoresistive sensors with dna-like double helix yarns for epidermal pulse monitoring. Adv Mater, 2022, 34: 2104313.

[47] JiangM, HuH, JinC, LvR, GuoJ, JiangS, BaiZ. Three-directional spacer-knitted piezoresistant strain and pressure sensor for electronic integration and on-body applications. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2023, 15: 55009.

[48] VuCC, KimJ. Waterproof, thin, high-performance pressure sensors-hand drawing for underwater wearable applications. Sci Technol Adv Mater, 2021, 22: 718.

[49] YuQ, SuC, BiS, HuangY, LiJ, ShaoH, JiangJ, ChenN. Ti3C2Tx@nonwoven fabric composite: promising MXene-coated fabric for wearable piezoresistive pressure sensors. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2022, 14: 9632.

[50] HeY, ZhouM, MahmoudMHH, LuX, HeG, ZhangL, HuangM, ElnaggarAY, LeiQ, LiuH, LiuC, AzabIHE. Multifunctional wearable strain/pressure sensor based on conductive carbon nanotubes/silk nonwoven fabric with high durability and low detection limit. Adv Compos Hybrid Mater, 2022, 5: 1939.

[51] TianG, ShiY, DengJ, YuW, YangL, LuY, ZhaoY, JinX, KeQ, HuangC. Low-cost, scalable fabrication of all-fabric piezoresistive sensors via binder-free, in-situ welding of carbon nanotubes on bicomponent nonwovens. Adv Fiber Mater., 2023, 6: 120.

[52] ClevengerM, KimH, SongHW, NoK, LeeS. Binder-free printed PEDOT wearable sensors on everyday fabrics using oxidative chemical vapor deposition. Sci Adv, 2021, 7: eabj8958.

[53] TangZ, JiaS, ShiS, WangF, LiB. Coaxial carbon nanotube/polymer fibers as wearable piezoresistive sensors. Sens Actuators A, 2018, 284: 85.

[54] TangJ, WuY, MaS, ZhangY, YanT, PanZ. Three-directional knitted fabric sensor made of elastic carbon-based nanofiber yarn with excellent tensile and pressure sensing performance. Nano Energy, 2024, 128. 109801

[55] SouriH, BanerjeeH, JusufiA, RadacsiN, StokesAA, ParkI, SittiM, AmjadiM. Wearable and stretchable strain sensors: materials, sensing mechanisms, and applications. Adv Intell Syst, 2020, 2: 2000039.

[56] LiuY, LiH, LiangX, DengH, ZhangX, HeidariH, GhannamR, ZhangX. Speech recognition using intelligent piezoresistive sensor based on polystyrene sphere microstructures. Adv Intell Syst, 2023, 5: 2200427.

[57] FanW, HeQ, MengK, TanX, ZhouZ, ZhangG, YangJ, WangZL. Machine-knitted washable sensor array textile for precise epidermal physiological signal monitoring. Sci Adv, 2020, 6: eaay2840.

Funding

North Carolina State University(SCRIF)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Donghua University, Shanghai, China