GoKawiilMIT engineers build stretchable fiber-optic sheet that senses its own 3D shape
MIT researchers led by Chen Yu, with Nina Cao and Kaitlyn Becker, developed a soft sheet embedded with modified optical fibers that can track how it bends and twists in three dimensions. Unlike earlier waveguide sensors that only measured simple curvature along a line, the new design reconstructs the full surface shape as it deforms, detailed in a study in Advanced Intelligent Systems.
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The researchers suggest the technology could help clinicians track detailed body movement during physical therapy, such as monitoring how a patient's arm bends during rehabilitation exercises. More broadly, a flexible sensor capable of mapping its own 3D deformation could extend to soft robotics or wearable devices where tracking complex surface shapes, not just single bends, is useful.
- MIT team created a shape-sensing sheet using modified optical fibers in a flexible material.
- The design advances beyond prior waveguide sensors that only tracked simple line curvature, enabling full 3D surface shape reconstruction.
- Potential applications include physical therapy monitoring and other fields needing real-time tracking of complex bending and twisting.
Source: news.mit.edu — Jennifer Chu, 2026-10-10
Published there as: “Shape-sensing sheet digitally tracks its own movement as it bends and twists”
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