Maintaining a constant body temperature is one of the most critical requirements for living and working. High-temperature environments elevate energy consumption, leading to increased\u00a0heat stress<\/a>, thus exacerbating\u00a0chronic conditions<\/a>\u00a0such as\u00a0cardiovascular disease<\/a>, diabetes,\u00a0mental health issues<\/a>\u00a0and asthma, while also increasing the risk of infectious disease transmission.<\/p>\n According to the World Health Organization, globally, there were approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019, with 45% occurring in Asia and 36% in Europe.<\/p>\n Thermal\u00a0protective clothing<\/a>\u00a0is essential to safeguard individuals in extreme high-temperature environments, such as firefighters who need to be present at fire scenes and construction workers who work outdoors for extended periods.<\/p>\n However, traditional gear has been limited by statically fixed thermal resistance, which can lead to overheating and discomfort in moderate conditions, while its heat insulation may not offer sufficient protection in extreme fire events and other high-temperature environments.<\/p>\n To address this issue, Dr. Shou and his team have developed intelligent soft robotic clothing for automatic temperature adaptation and\u00a0thermal insulation<\/a>\u00a0in hot environments, offering superior personal protection and thermal comfort across a range of temperatures.<\/p>\n Their research was inspired by biomimicry in nature, like the adaptive thermal regulation mechanism in pigeons, which is mainly based on structural changes. Pigeons use their feathers to trap a layer of air surrounding their skin to reduce heat loss to the environment. When the temperature drops, they fluff up their feathers to trap a significant amount of still air, thereby increasing thermal resistance and retaining warmth.<\/p>\n The protective clothing developed by the team uses soft robotic textile for dynamic adaptive thermal management. Soft actuators, designed like a human network-patterned exoskeleton and encapsulating a non-toxic, non-flammable, low-boiling-point fluid, were strategically embedded within the clothing.<\/p>\n This thermo-stimulated system turns the fluid from a liquid into a gas when the ambient temperature rises, causing expansion of soft actuators and thickening the textile matrix, thereby enhancing the gap of still air and doubling the thermal resistance from 0.23 to 0.48 Km2<\/sup>\/W.<\/p>\n The protective clothing can also keep the inner surface temperatures at least 10\u00b0C cooler than conventional heat-resistant clothing, even when the outer surface reaches 120\u00b0C.<\/p>\n This unique soft robotic textile, made by thermoplastic polyurethane, is soft, resilient and durable. Notably, it is far more skin-friendly and conformable than temperature-responsive clothing embedded with\u00a0shape-memory alloys<\/a>\u00a0and is adjustable for a wide range of protective clothing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/researchers-invent-int-1.jpg\")