Body scan processing, generative design, and multi-objective evaluation of sports bras : a new design strategy

Abstract

Sports bras are critical to the comfort and performance of female athletes, yet little knowledge exists about the mechanics of sports bras that can be used to guide their design. Assessing any sports bra's performance requires time-consuming and expensive biomechanical testing. In our search to answer the question: "how do different design properties of sports bras affect their performance?" this research has created and implemented a framework of informed design tools to explore and evaluate the sports bra design space. The framework includes tools that we have developed for body scan analysis, fast simulation, design generation, and evaluation. Using these tools together enables the exploration of hundreds, or thousands, of designs -- each one having been evaluated on a variety of metrics. Using this research, designers can discover optimal sports bra designs as well as understand what makes them optimal.