Self-Tightening and Self-Fastening Belts and Shoes: Shape Memory Adaptive Apparel to Assist Individuals with Physical Limitations

People with physical disabilities face significant challenges in basic activities like dressing and undressing. The CDC reports that 3.6% of U.S. adults have self-care disabilities impacting dressing or bathing. Adaptive clothing, designed to facilitate dressing, includes features such as zip-off sleeves, Velcro shoes, and side-opening pants, which enhance autonomy and quality of life. Current adaptive shoes primarily use Velcro straps and wide openings with zippers. We seek to expand the adaptive clothing solution space by exploring garment-based soft robotics, such as shape memory alloy (SMA) springs, to offer advanced solutions. In this study, we developed and tested self-tightening and self-fastening belts and shoes using SMA actuators as tightening mechanisms and both hook-and-eye and electromagnetic components as fastening solutions, to improve accessibility and independence for individuals with physical limitations.