Table 1.
State-of-the-Art SMA wearables. Comparison of proposed use cases and categorization on the basis of application in [A]-Rehabilitation, [B]-Protection, [C]-Assistance, [D]-Human Robot/Computer Interaction, and [E]-Industry 4.0.
| Ref. | Highlight | [A] | [B] | [C] | [D] | [E] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [111] (1999) |
Using actuated SMA embedded in clothing to create air gap for insulation. The applications are proposed for wearable garments for fire service, drivers in enclosed vehicles, racing drivers, etc. |
× | ✓ | × | × | × |
| [76] (2011) |
Active soft orthotic for the knee, actively controlled by SMA springs, for gait treatment, associated with neuromuscular disorders. | ✓ | × | × | × | × |
| [83] (2016) |
Novel SMA cartridge systems are fabricated to be integrated with active compression garments and envisioned for applications in space medicine, and extravehicular activity. | × | ✓ | × | × | × |
| [112] (2016) |
SMA-based active variable stiffness fibers for tunable structural performance. Demonstrated motion control through surface interaction. |
× | × | ✓ | × | × |
| [113] (2017) |
Wrist and forearm exoskeleton for in-home robot-assisted rehabilitation therapy. Actuation modules are designed which contain SMA. | ✓ | × | × | × | × |
| [77] (2017) |
Miniature SMA wire-based haptic ring to display touch and shearing force to a fingerpad. The behavior is heavily influenced by the electro-thermomechanical behavior of SMA. | × | × | × | ✓ | × |
| [114] (2017) |
Medical elbow rehabilitation exoskeleton based on SMA actuators. Proposed ergonomic design solution with HRI characteristics. | ✓ | × | × | × | × |
| [78] (2018) |
SMA-based wearable haptic device for silent pressure sense on the skin. Neural network-based characterisation to accurately predict device behavior. |
× | × | × | ✓ | × |
| [80] (2019) |
A tendon-driven hand exoskeleton used to exert extremely high forces to grasp objects in various configurations. | ✓ | × | × | × | × |
| [47] (2019) |
A novel knitted NiTi-based dynamically conforming wearable fabric in response to the wearer’s temperature is introduced. | × | ✓ | × | × | × |
| [82] (2019) |
Therapy exoskeleton for elbow joint based on SMA actuation. Noiseless operation increases its useability. | ✓ | × | × | × | × |
| [81] (2019) |
SMA-based wearable soft robot to assist in wrist motion specifically for patients with lower arm movement difficulties. | ✓ | × | ✓ | × | × |
| [115] (2019) |
Designed to reduce stiffness of pressurised EVA glove by giving counteracting forces based on SMA actuation. | × | × | ✓ | × | × |
| [84] (2019) |
Suit-type wearable robot using shape memory alloy-based fabric muscle. The smart fabric is stitched inside the jacket along the shoulders. |
× | × | ✓ | × | × |
| [91] (2020) |
SMA-based soft textile for ankle plantar flexion assistance. Clothing-type wearable robot that is able to provide assistive forces without rigid kinematics. | × | ✓ | × | × | × |
| [92] (2020) |
Smart textile with SMA spring elements for thermal protection. The aim was to get adaptive clothing with protection against variable work environments. | × | ✓ | × | × | × |
| Our Work 1 |
Human-Computer Interaction Use Case: Smart Jacket-Algorithm for the HCI use case framework. The Machine Learning algorithm is essential especially in the multi-user case to analyze and optimize the thermostat. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Our Work 2 |
Human-Robot Interaction Use Case: Smart Shoes- Human leaders followed by robots would be associated with significant and better performance in productivity, engagement, role ambiguity, and employee satisfaction. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |