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In 2023, researchers in the Soft Transducers Laboratory in EPFL's School of Engineering presented the world's first pump in the form of a fiber. The pump's flexible tubing can generate its own fluid pressure and flow rate and be sewn into smart textiles to circulate fluids for thermoregulation and haptic feedback or to power wearable assistive devices.

The team has taken its textile-compatible engineering a step further with FiberMotor: a threadlike motor that converts electrical energy directly into motion. With diameters of 1–3 mm, FiberMotor is composed of two concentric hollow fibers.

Tightly coiled around each fiber are insulated copper-wire electrodes only slightly thicker than a human hair. When a voltage is applied to these electrodes, electrostatic forces repeatedly pull the fibers into alignment, causing the inner fiber to slide within the outer one, much like a telescope.

"Our FiberMotor is the first fiber-format sliding motor," says Soft Transducers Lab head Herbert Shea. "It produces enough force to actuate devices for soft robotic applications, while remaining silent, flexible and bidirectional."

Many everyday movements like lifting, pushing and pulling rely on linear (as opposed to rotational) motion. Reproducing this kind of motion has been a longstanding challenge in wearable robotics because motors powerful enough to drive linear movements often require rigid gears, transmissions and other bulky components. So-called "artificial muscles" have been developed, but their range of motion is limited by the degree to which their materials can stretch, contract or bend.

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