Today's complex geo-political climate has forced the U.S. armed services into new operational strategies. The prevalence of international terrorism, the threat from chemical and biological weapons, and the pressure to “do more with less” has placed increasing demands on the military. This new operational environment requires highly mobile troops having enhanced decision-making capability provided through the rapid transfer and dissemination of information to each member of the squad. What is missing is the ability to process and use this information via an Intranet at the level of the individual soldier. The purpose of our work has been to develop, evaluate and implement such a wearable conductive network for the dismounted soldier.

The ability to integrate electrical functionality into textile garments is becoming increasingly desired both on the battlefield and in the work environment. In order to accomplish this, the issue of compatibility of mechanical properties between dissimilar materials needs to be addressed. Textiles are typically selected for comfort while electrical materials are chosen for superior electrical properties with secondary consideration given to properties such as flexibility. As a result many attempts to integrate electrical functionality into textiles result in stiff, unwieldy garments that have difficulty gaining user acceptance.

Part of the electrotextile work done at Foster-Miller has focused on the integration of these dissimilar materials in a manner that does not degrade the wearability of the garment. Our work has included the development of textile cables that carry power and data using both electrical and optical media. In order to assess the wearability of these cables a method was needed of testing their stiffness. Several methods of measuring textile stiffness existed but did not address the many issues and material characteristics unique to conductive textiles.