The PEEK project "Fashion and Robotics" shows what creative robotics can do: Shoes and pants grow three-dimensionally from a nutrient solution, a robot mends the hole in the jacket. With new process thinking and innovative technologies, the Linz research team from the fields of fashion and technology, creative robotics and biomechatronics wants to initiate the transition to a sustainable fashion industry. It is not only environmentalists who are calling for changes in the resource-intensive textile industry; new EU directives are also intended to contribute to the sustainable development of the global textile value chain.

Johannes Braumann, a researcher in the Creative Robotics department at the University of Art and Design Linz, explains the research approach: "It's about sustainability requirements, the need for automation and individual production with small batch sizes. What's new about our research approach is that we first take a step back: Instead of using automation to make an existing process as efficient as possible, we try to think about the process in a completely free and new way."

Fashion designer Christiane Luible-Bär, who conducted research in the field of fashion and technology years ago and is now a project manager in the PEEK project, also supports this approach to creative robotics. Instead of optimizing textiles and two-dimensional cuts and the conventional manufacturing process, the aim was to create 3D processes and new materials for the fashion industry. "We wanted to show a new approach and get away from the old thinking of 'I need a textile, a pattern and a sewing machine'," explains project manager Luible-Bär. As a first step, the team started with robots that produced a garment using 3D printing. Robotic arms were also developed that can cut or sew in three dimensions.

Plugging holes with robots

The project, which lasted almost four years, has now created further revolutionary approaches: electro-spinning for repairs has been developed as a replacement for traditional "darning"; Braumann explains it like this: "In a high-voltage field, a polymer is sprayed onto the torn area of a garment by a robot arm, this forms nanofibers and these bond with the textile." The project team presented the application at Ars Electronica 2023 in Linz and at Automatica in Munich.
This automation should reduce repair costs to around two euros, making repairs affordable and interesting again. At present, it is often cheaper to buy a new dress or a new pair of trousers. There are also further advantages from a logistics point of view, emphasizes Braumann: "On the one hand, robotics can be used in large factories and quantities of hundreds of thousands make a big difference in terms of sustainability. On the other hand, a robotic arm that has various functions and tools also works as a micro-factory in urban areas."

This possibility in turn leads from 3D repair to 3D redesign: if someone has their five-year-old trousers repaired in a tailor's shop, designers can work with the robot to make design suggestions to adapt the trousers to a currently fashionable cut. This would allow clothing to be worn for longer. In addition, job profiles would evolve. Something that Christiane Luible-Bär definitely supports, as she also wants to give her students new perspectives as a lecturer at the University of Art and Design Linz.

Robots in the role of breadwinner

For the creative team, 3D printing is not the be-all and end-all; instead, they want to make fashion materials more sustainable. Werner Baumgartner from the Institute of Medical and Biomechatronics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz was the ideal partner for another process that was rethought: For the first time, it has been possible to grow 3D trousers and 3D shoes - instead of cutting and then sewing textiles as usual. The newly developed biomaterials are not fiber-based, but grow three-dimensionally from bacteria, for example via a shoe last. This must be perforated in such a way that the finished shoe can be removed. "The robot is also important here, but in a new role, namely as a nourisher. This is because the bacteria need a nutrient solution regularly and specifically around the clock, and a machine can do this more reliably than a human," says Luible-Bär. The team has now applied for a patent for a related innovation from the artistic-scientific PEEK project.

New applications for EU research funding are currently being submitted in order to pursue the projects, which are thinking far into the future. In addition, know-how and results have already been passed on to two scientists who completed a guest residency at the University of Art and Design Linz.

Creative view of industrial processes

The creative minds' pragmatic view of industrial processes aims to change perspectives, summarizes Braumann: "Industry often has a tunnel vision with the goal of full automation. But we ask: How much automation is needed at all? Because we also want to upgrade the craft." In a large factory, for example, it makes sense for an AI to scan the garments and recognize where something needs to be repaired. A tailoring shop, on the other hand, does not need AI, as a human can mark the damaged area and the robotic arm then repairs it cost-effectively with electro-spinning.

Luible-Bär confirms this view: "In addition to sustainability, the creative aspect of the project was important to us. PhD students with an artistic focus conducted experiments on the interaction of robots, textiles and space, for example with the question: Who is the actor?" You have to think about such questions in the future: Is the robot a helper or a co-creator? What do we expect from robots and how do we humans want to work with machines in the future?

About the researcher of the project

Christiane Luible-Bär is a trained fashion designer, but has been working in research with a focus on technology for a long time. She is a professor and co-director of the Fashion & Technology degree program at the University of Art and Design Linz, which she set up in 2015 together with Ute Ploier (focus on design). In the PEEK project Fashion and Robotics, which was funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF with almost 400,000 euros, she conducted research with Johannes Braumann; Johannes Braumann heads the Creative Robotics department at the University of Art and Design Linz. The third member of the team, where for the first time three departments that have never worked together in a creative context conducted research, is Werner Baumgartner, who heads the Institute of Medical and Biomechatronics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. The core research team consisted of Amir Bastan, Miriam Eichinger, Julio Escudero, Emanuel Gollob and Agnes Weth.