Knitted Structures Move Into Robotics at Sant'Anna's BioRobotics Institute

Knitted fabrics are moving from passive covering to active component in wearable robotics — and that shift was the core message Leonardo Cappello, Assistant Professor at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, delivered to a technical textiles audience in Albstadt, Germany, on 7–8 October.

Speaking at The Loop – Chapter One: Medical Textiles, Cappello laid out how textile engineering, robotics and human-machine interaction now converge in assistive devices. The venue matters: this was a knitting-industry event, and the presentation was explicitly a briefing on where the demand for engineered knits is heading.

What changes for knitting suppliers?

The central argument is that fabric choice directly determines the mechanical behaviour of a wearable robotic system. Cappello classified both warp knitted and weft knitted structures within the wider family of textile architectures — alongside nonwovens, woven fabrics, braided structures and non-crimp fabrics (fabrics with fibres held straight, not crimped, for higher stiffness-to-weight).

For mills and flat-knitting developers, the opportunity sits in what the presentation called structural, functional and programmed properties: fabrics engineered with controlled elasticity, integrated actuation and sensing capabilities, tailored to a specific wearable application. In other words, the knit stops being a sleeve around a rigid machine and becomes part of the machine itself.

What was demonstrated?

Two working examples anchored the talk:

• A compact, lightweight soft robotic mechanism capable of bidirectional movement through straightening and bending — a candidate alternative to conventional mechanical actuation (the components that drive a robot's motion).
• A soft robotic grip glove driven by pneumatic actuation, meaning air pressure does the work of muscles, assisting hand movement and gripping for rehabilitation and users with reduced hand function.

The programme also covered lower-body wearable robotics, including exoskeleton concepts for walking assistance, plus research into musculoskeletal expansion — advanced human-machine interfaces, with visualisations of osseointegrated interfaces (direct bone-anchored connections) and bone conduction stimulation for sensory feedback.

Caveats were on the table too. Practical challenges remain in reducing weight and bulk while improving usability and overall system performance. Nobody at the supply-chain tier should read this as near-term volume.

Where does the research capacity sit?

The BioRobotics Institute combines education, research and prototyping, with infrastructure spanning mechanical workshops, microscopy, chemical and biological laboratories, silicone and polymer prototyping, additive manufacturing and cleanroom facilities. Its mission covers both biologically inspired technology development and robotics applied to rehabilitation and human-capability enhancement.

Knowledge transfer is scheduled, not hypothetical: the institute runs the Robot Power seasonal school, titled Textile Robotics for Human Empowerment, with its second edition set for February 2027 focused on the textile-robotics relationship.

The sourcing decision this forces

For technical textiles and knitting technology suppliers, the takeaway is a development roadmap, not an order book: start building competence in engineered knits with defined mechanical properties — elasticity control, actuation integration, sensing — because that's the specification sheet soft robotics is writing. Suppliers who wait for the volumes will find the qualification work already done by competitors who engaged with institutes like Sant'Anna now.

The message from Albstadt, in short: the traditional strengths of knitted textiles — flexibility, adaptability, comfort — are becoming engineering parameters. Treat them as such.