Wearable robot made from ‘muscle fabric’ that boosts strength when worn set for commercialization

[Financial News] A ‘muscle fabric’ robot that gives wearers a boost is expected to become available for everyday use. This follows Sartexo (SARTEXO Inc.), a KIMM startup, launching efforts to commercialize a third-generation garment-style wearable robot using its foundational ‘muscle fabric’ technology.
According to KIMM on the 5th, Sartexo was founded by Dr. Park Cheol-hoon, who works at the Advanced Robotics Research Center at KIMM’s AI Robotics Research Institute and now serves as the company’s CEO. Applying shape-memory alloy artificial-muscle technology that he has researched at KIMM since 2012, CEO Park has unveiled the ‘Bionic Suit’ and is pursuing market entry, focusing on industrial worksites.
The product’s key feature is its ‘muscle fabric,’ which generates force itself instead of relying on motors and frames. Shape-memory alloy wire thinner than a human hair is made into coil yarn and woven like fabric; when an electric current is supplied, it contracts like human muscle and generates considerable force. This allows it to assist body movements while maintaining a lightweight, flexible feel when worn.
Ten grams of muscle fabric can lift a weight of up to 10–15 kg, generating force up to 1,500 times its own weight. The waist-support Bionic Suit Waist using the material weighs 1.3 kg, including its battery and controller, while the integrated Bionic Suit Full, which supports the waist, shoulders and elbows together, weighs no more than 1.8 kg. Tests also confirmed that the use of waist muscles falls by at least 40% during tasks involving repeated lifting.
Sartexo offers a range of products designed to assist movement in specific body areas, including the waist, shoulders and elbows. In particular, it plans to expand the applications of its Bionic Suit Full—which is the world’s first suit to support the waist, shoulders and elbows simultaneously—to include care, rehabilitation, everyday life and national defense, as well as industrial worksites such as logistics, construction and manufacturing, where workers must exert force repeatedly.
The company has also automated a previously manual production process and increased productivity by applying automated weaving technology that enables continuous production of muscle fabric.
The goal is to move beyond the limitations of existing industrial wearable robots, which have remained shared equipment because of their high cost and weight, and make them widely available as products that company employees and everyday users can put on as easily as clothing. The products are easy to wash and store, can be worn over work clothes, or can be integrated directly into workwear or uniforms to suit a company’s needs. Sartexo is considering prices ranging from 1 million won or less for the waist-support model to the mid-1-million-won range, depending on performance and the body areas supported.
Sartexo CEO Park Cheol-hoon said, “Whereas first-generation wearable robots made the body fit a mechanical frame and second-generation ones secured equipment to the body, the Bionic Suit is a third-generation wearable robot with a new form factor, designed so that the clothing itself assists a person’s strength. We will build on research achievements originating at KIMM and turn them into real products, continuing to develop the robot so that anyone can easily wear it not only at industrial worksites but also in everyday life.”
Videos of the Bionic Suit being worn and of the research are available on Sartexo’s YouTube channel.

[email protected] Yeon Ji-an Reporter