Robotic Fibers
Year
2025-26
Description
Robotic Fibers is a research project on robotic fabrication of fiber-based textiles and membranes—structures grown rather than assembled. Bridging material computation, robotic fabrication, and computational design, it develops novel flexible, porous, performance-driven surfaces across scales. Current work includes InSituWear, a method that enables robots to tension-wrap thermoplastic microfilaments directly on the body for custom-fit, waste-free wearables, and Electrospun Fields, a robotic electrospinning method where electric fields and conductive scaffolds condition the formation of nano-fiber membranes.
Role
Sergio co-directs the Robotic Fibers project, leading the development of its melt-drawing robotic fabrication method—personally working on computational design, toolpath generation, and robotic control—and supervising a team of ~5 researchers. He also contributes to the project’s overall research direction and to the scientific publications from both fabrication tracks.
Author
Critical Matter Group
Team
Sergio Mutis
Frank Cong
Wai Wan
Ayah Mahmoud
Berfin Ataman
Abigail Suk
Jiaji Li
Avantika Velho
Zhiyan Xing
Behnaz Farahi
Mutis S, Wan J, Ataman B, Suk A, Mahmoud A, Li J, Farahi B. 2026. "InSituWear: On-Body Fabrication
using Melt-drawn PCL Filaments” CHI. (accepted)
Wan J, Mahmoud A, Mutis S, Velho A, Xing Z, Farahi B. 2026. "Electrospun Fields: 3D Nano-Fiber Material Computation as Design Method” SIGGRAPH.
The InSituWear Method
On-Body Melt Drawing
InSituWear is a form-finding, on-body robotic fabrication method that melt-draws low-temperature PCL into micro- filaments and tension-wraps them directly around the body. This collapses design, fabrication, and fitting into a single embodied process, without scanning, modeling, or assembly.
Fabrication Toolkit
A custom end-effector suite enables reliable melt-drawing through heated tips and spring-loaded retraction, allowing the tool to self-correct across uneven surfaces. Interchangeable single-needle and multi-needle heads support both precise patterning and efficient large-area fabrication.
Fiber Formation Studies
Robotic Setup
To quantify strand quality and controllability, we performed robotic pull-out tests that draw single filaments from molten material under fixed dip depth and pull height. The study isolates how fabrication dynamics shape fiber formation before full textile patterning.
Material Parameter Control
We characterize how robotic parameters—especially pulling speed and material composition—directly control filament diameter, producing fibers from hair-thin strands to thicker structural filaments. This establishes a tunable mapping from computation to material outcome for performance-driven textiles.
3D Textile Pattern-Making
Robotic Patterning
A pattern-making setup translates toolpaths into wrapped textiles by varying strand orientation, spacing, and looping logic around cylindrical targets. We prototype multiple wrapping families—parallel, crossing, and diagrid—revealing how geometry directly governs cohesion and mechanical behavior.
Material Intelligence
Programming Responsive Fibers
Beyond structure, fibers can embed responsive behaviors through additives and integrated conductive elements, enabling textiles that react to heat and touch. This positions intelligence as a native material property, formed during fabrication rather than added afterward.
Applications & Demos
Cross-Pattern Sleeve
The sleeve prototype demonstrates safe on-body fabrication at full wearable scale, executing controlled woven patterns directly around the arm. It validates stability, comfort, and repeatability while maintaining precise pattern intent.
Thermochromic Glove
The glove prototype integrates textile intelligence through thermochromic PCL and embedded nichrome wires, producing localized activation triggered by hand gestures. It demonstrates responsive behavior as an intrinsic part of the fabricated fiber network.
Furniture & Architecture
The method extends beyond the body by wrapping open 3D frames, producing lightweight structural textiles that can be reinforced for strength. These explorations suggest a pathway from wearable-scale fabrication to fiber-based spatial systems in furniture and architecture.
The Electrospun Fields Method
3D Robotic Electrospinning
Electrospun Fields is a robotic electrospinning method that uses electric fields to draw nano-fibers from polymer solutions onto conductive 3D scaffolds. A custom UR20 setup enables precise control of emitter position and orientation, allowing field-conditioned deposition on complex, non-planar geometries.
Materials & Fibers
We develop a bio-compatible material catalog—including synthetic and protein-based blends—to define an operating envelope for stable fiber formation. Microscopic studies reveal how each formulation yields distinct fiber morphologies, alignment, and durability.
Field-Conditioned 3D Deposition
A series of deposition studies investigates how scaffold curvature and topology guide material accumulation and membrane growth. These experiments show how fibers self-organize into volumetric structures rather than flat mats.
Taxonomy of Material Deposition
A scaffold taxonomy links geometric primitives and lattice systems to emergent deposition behaviors. This matrix formalizes how geometry conditions anisotropy, density gradients, and hierarchical structuring in electrospun membranes.
Programmable Deposition
Robotic motion synchronizes electrospinning parameters—distance, speed, and angle—making deposition spatially programmable. This transforms the electric field into a computation layer that shapes fiber density, orientation, and thickness in real time.
Applications & Demos
Electrospun Keratin Mask on Conductive PLA
A conductive PLA mask demonstrates controlled electrospinning on intricate concave and convex topologies. The resulting membrane becomes a responsive material skin that expresses both scaffold geometry and field behavior.
Electrospun PVA Sculptural Garment on Wire
A wire garment prototype scales the method to larger, body-scale scaffolds, producing sculptural fiber volumes through layered field-conditioned deposition. The piece demonstrates electrospinning as a spatial fabrication method for textiles beyond the planar substrate.
