Magneto‐responsive fibers and fabrics for soft systems

Abstract The combination of functional materials in fiber form has led to a surge in the integration of functional fibers and fabrics into soft systems that span sensing, communication, and actuation domains. A key subset is magnetic fibers and fabrics. Magneto‐electro‐mechanical coupling within fiber dimensions is attracting significant attention, as it promises a wide range of applications in soft robotics, medical devices, wearable electronics, energy harvesting, and human‐machine interfaces. The combination of magnets and fibers can provide a “best‐of‐both‐worlds” scenario, offering magnetically tunable toolkits with unprecedented access due to their high‐aspect‐ratio form factor and transforming many soft systems, including medical catheters and soft robots, into next‐generation devices. In this review, we discuss recent breakthroughs in this topic from both a fundamental and technological perspective. This review provides a systematic survey of materials innovation, fabrication, and integration strategies for magneto‐responsive fibers and fabrics in soft systems. We also discuss practical application considerations. Finally, we outline future directions and challenges, emphasizing the vision of magneto‐responsive fibers and fabrics as versatile platforms for integrating diverse components to achieve multimodal smart soft systems and their application in embodied intelligence and human‐machine interaction.