SMART ePANTS

Intelligence Value

The SMART ePANTS program seeks to develop clothing with integrated audio, video, and geolocation sensor systems that feature the same stretchability, bendability, washability, and comfort of regular textiles. By weaving these devices directly into garments, Intelligence Community staff will be able to record information from their environment hands-free, without the need to wear uncomfortable, bulky, and rigid devices. As a result, personnel will have greater range of motion, thus improving their response time in challenging circumstances.

Summary

Active smart textile (ASTs) research is a burgeoning field where fabrics are designed to adapt and change their functionality in response to changes to their external environment and/or user input. Unlike passive smart textiles (PST), such as Gore-Tex® which rely on their structure to function, ASTs employ energy to power built-in sensors and/or actuators that sense, store, interpret, and/or react to information from their environment.

New, enabling, research to transfer many of the capabilities of rigid wearable electronics into ASTs has surfaced including: weavable conductive polymer “wires”, energy harvesters powered by the body, ultra-low power printable computers on cloth, microphones that behave like threads, and “scrunchable” batteries that can function after many deformations. In order to transfer this research into AST products, revolutionary new materials and manufacturing techniques are needed to develop complete and integrated systems containing mechanically deformable and durable: 1) power sources, 2) sensors, 3) computation and data storage, and 4) electrically conductive system component “wires” and interconnects.

The SMART ePANTS goal is to build sensor systems that are comfortably integrated into primary clothing (e.g., shirts, pants, socks, and underwear). Research committed to developing these systems will be divided into three demonstration tracks:

• Audio recording
• Video and photography capture
• Indoor geolocation

Government-furnished capabilities

Government-Furnished Capabilities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory and the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America can be accessed here.

HYBRID PROPOSERS' DAY INFORMATION

SMART ePANTS Virtual Proposers’ Day was held on Wednesday, 11 May 2022 from 10:30am to 5:00pm EST.

Sam.gov Reference

SMART ePANTS Proposers' Day Presentation

SMART ePANTS Teaming Information (Compiled Submissions)

SMART ePANTS Teaming Form

Teaming Forms Received After Proposers' Day

Anthro Energy Capabilities Statement

Ateios Capabilities Statement

Ateios Teaming Form

Avient Capabilities Statement

Avient Teaming Form

Battelle Memorial Institute Teaming Form

Bayflex Capabilities Statement

Bayflex Teaming Form

DuPont Capabilities Statement

DuPont Teaming Form 

Electroninks, Inc Teaming Form

IoT/AI Capabilities Statement

Merino Teaming Form

Merino Capability Statement

Mide Technology Capabilities Statement

Neotech AMT Capabilities Statement

OSEMI Inc Teaming Form

PARC Capabilities Statement

PARC Teaming Form

Penn State University Capabilities Statement

Riot Energy Capabilities Statement

Riot Energy Teaming Form

Syscom Capabilities Statement

UES, Inc. Capabilities Statement

UES, Inc. Teaming Form

UMass Lowell Capabilities Statement

Wave Sciences Capabilities Statement

Wave Sciences Teaming Form