Group
Advanced Textiles Research Group
Unit(s) of assessment: Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Research theme(s): Health Innovation
School: School of Art & Design
Discover the Future of Textiles with ATRG
Overview
The Advanced Textiles Research Group (ATRG) at Nottingham School of Art & Design is a global leader in smart textile innovation. We develop next-generation electronic textiles and wearable technologies that transform how people interact with clothing, environments, and data. From healthcare and personal protection to sports, defence, communications, and fashion, our interdisciplinary team delivers scalable, high-impact solutions powered by cutting-edge research in electronic yarns, wearable electronics, and flexural composites. Partner with ATRG to bring intelligent textiles from concept to market. ATRG’s focus is to address challenges for real world applications that can impact upon on lives and society through the following themes:
Revolutionise your products with textiles that do more. Our technology embeds sensors, energy harvesters, and active components directly into yarns and fabrics, enabling capabilities like motion tracking, temperature sensing, and health monitoring, all seamlessly integrated into wearable materials.
Step into the future of health and performance. We create advanced wearable platforms for real-time monitoring, therapeutic stimulation, and remote diagnostics. From electrical stimulation devices to non-invasive respiratory sensors, our solutions are designed for clinical impact and commercial scalability.
Train with precision using our hyper-realistic surgical models. Engineered to simulate living tissue with exceptional fidelity, these models support trauma surgeons, prosthetics experts, and transplant teams worldwide. Our composites blend biomechanics, imaging, and additive manufacturing to deliver unmatched realism and functionality.
Funding sources
We are very grateful for the funding supports from the following:
- Lugoda, P., Oliveros-Mata, E.S., Marasinghe, K., Bhaumik, R., Pretto, N., Oliveira, C., Dias, T., Hughes-Riley, T., Haller, M., Münzenrieder, N., Makarov, D. Submersible touchless interactivity in drapable textiles enabled by highly selective magnetosensitive smart yarns. Communications Engineering, 4(33), 1-10.
- A. Ali, Y. Wei, Y. Tyson, H. Akerman, A.I.R. Jackson, R. Lane, D. Spencer, N. White, Enhancing the response of a wearable sensor for improved respiratory rate (RR) monitoring, IEEE Access, 2024.
- Jessica Stanley, Phil Kunovski, John A. Hunt, Yang Wei, Stretchable electronics for electronic textiles enabled by 3D helical structure, Nature Scientific Reports, 2024.
- Shadrack O. Aboagye, John A. Hunt, Graham Ball, Yang Wei, Portable Noninvasive Technologies for Early Breast Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review, Computers in Biology and Medicine, 2024.
- Shahidi, A.M., Marasinghe, K., Ebrahimi, P., Oliveira, C., Perera, N., Briggs-Goode, A., Dias, T., Hughes-Riley, T.Design considerations for the creation of electronic yarns for wearable health monitoring devices. The Design Journal, 1-20.
- Dang, C., Wang, Z., Hughes-Riley, T., Dias, T., Qian, S., Wang, Z., Wang, X., Liu, M., Yu, S., Liu, R., Xu, D., Wei, L., Yan, W., Zhu, M. Fibres—threads of intelligence—enable a new generation of wearable systems. 2024. Chemical Society Reviews, 53, 8790-8846.
- Yu, X., Chen, L., Zhang, J., Yan, W., Hughes-Riley, T., Cheng, Y., Zhu, M. Structural design of light-emitting fibers and fabrics for wearable and smart devices. 2024. Science Bulletin, 69(15), 2439-2455.
- ARM, R., SHAHIDI, A., PÎSLARU, A., MARASINGHE, K., BIBB, R. and HUGHES-RILEY, T., 2024. Mechanical behavior of oil-saturated silicone membranes for adipose tissue synthesis in clinical and theatrical prosthesis. Prosthesis, 6 (6), pp. 1340-1358. ISSN 2673-1592
- ARM, R., SHAHIDI, A., CLARKE, C. and ALABRABA, E., 2022. Synthesis and characterisation of a cancerous liver for presurgical planning and training applications. BMJ Open Gastroenterology, 9: e000909. ISSN 2054-4774
- Advanced Therapeutic Materials
- Airbus
- BAE systems
- Bonnie Binary
- BSN Medical UK
- Camira Fabrics Ltd
- Centre for Process Innovation
- Donghua University
- H. Stoll AG & Co. KG
- International Automotive Components
- Intertronics
- Loughborough University
- MAS holdings
- MediCity
- Newcastle University
- Nottingham University NHS trust
- Oxford Space Systems
- Plessey semiconductors
- Polyco Healthline
- QinetiQ
- Scottish Government Mental Health Directorate
- Shima Seiki
- Smartlife
- Southampton General Hospital NHS trust
- Speedo
- Stretchline
- University Hospital of Derby and Burton NHS Trust
- University of Dundee
- University of Glasgow
- University of Moratuwa
- University of Sheffield
- University of Southampton
- Urgo Medical
- Zwick/Roell
Contact us
We welcome collaboration, inquiries and opportunities to engage with researchers, industry partners and students. Please feel free to get in touch with us using the details below.
Prof Yang Wei
Email: ATRG@ntu.ac.uk
Follow us
Watch how researchers at Nottingham Trent University’s Advanced Textile Research Group embed electronics into yarn to create soft, washable textiles with powerful sensing capabilities.
Related staff
Related Projects
- EPSRC, Wearable medical textiles for managing lymphoedema.
- NIHR i4i, Wearable respiratory sensors for hospital and home use.
- Innovate UK, Development of a smart mattress system for patient monitoring in healthcare settings.
- Wellcome Leap, Contributing to global health innovation through wearable sensing systems.
- CRUK, Development of a bra-integrated breast cancer monitoring system, capable of detecting tumour growth in real-time using textile-based sensors.
- Humane Research Trust Grant, High-throughput human muscle model for sarcopenia research.
- Animal Free Research UK, Technology to improve discovery of treatments for sarcopenia.
- EPSRC, Novel manufacturing methods for Functional Electronic TexTiles
- EPSRC, Production engineering research for the manufacture of novel electronically functional yarns for multifunctional smart textiles
Facilities
- Smart Medical Textile Lab at the Medical Technologies Innovation Facility (MTIF), a £23 million dual-site medical technology research facility. MTIF accelerates the development and commercialization of innovative medical technologies—including smart medical textiles—aimed at improving patient health and care.
- Wearable technologies Laboratory
- Flexible and Microelectronics Laboratory
- Flexural Composites Laboratory
- Advanced Knitting Laboratory