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FormaFlow Morphing Dress
Wearable morphing hemline for stairs and wet ground, ESP32 control, IMU stair detection, and six servos in a layered textile shell.
Background
For ME292C (Design of Morphing Matters and Materials) with Professor Yao, we drew on her textiles and wearables research. The dress moves its hemline dynamically to improve mobility while walking and climbing stairs and to avoid ground contact in wet environments, functional utility with flowing motion.
Technical architecture
Six SG90MR servo motors drive the mechanism: four lift tiled segments while two drive octopus-inspired flippers for outward curl. An ESP32 wireless remote provides three modes (walk lift, stair auto-lift, and manual tuning), with IMU stair detection triggering automatic lifting through accelerometer classification.
The garment uses double-layer construction to conceal mechanisms, with taped-thread stoppers for repeatable folds. The system achieves 120 mm lift height to eliminate ground contact with under 50 ms wireless response latency.