Embroidering robots, robotizing embroideries
Maude Guirault, CIFRE funded PhD with Montex, prepared at Ensadlab, Ecole des Arts Décoratifs - PSL in collaboration with the PMMH laboratory, ESPCI - PSL. Supervision: Samuel Bianchini, Etienne Reyssat, Aurélie Mosse, José Bico.
This practice-based research project aims to design and experiment, first and foremost, with embroidered, made-to-measure dressings for deformable robotic objects belonging to the field known internationally as ‘soft robotics’. Through covering and deformation, the aim is to study the extent to which the convergence between embroidery and soft robotics could both give new dimensions to this textile technique known as ‘embellishing’ and, in return, expand the field of ‘soft robotics’, thereby contributing to the renewal of human and soft robot relationships.
Renowned in the field of haute couture as a practice requiring bespoke expertise, embroidery is mainly used on clothing for its aesthetic and symbolic properties and is worn and set in motion by the moving human body. Here, we consider it as a kinetic element to be animated through its own movement or that of the soft robotic object it covers or into which it is integrated.
Movement is at the heart of flexible robotics, both from an engineering perspective and from that of applied arts and design. Due to their materiality and the organic aesthetics of their movement, the deformation of these robots is expressive and encourages the projection of an imagination and an aesthetic experience that is particularly ‘embodied’. They can then lead to the experience or amplification of certain emotions, including empathy, and thus lead to a renewal of the relationship between humans and soft robots.
Related publication
- M. Guirault. (2026). Parade : Mise en déforme de deux objets souples habillés de broderies. In: DECOR, n°6, « Terminal », 11 novembre 2026, pp.159-167.