  FeltingReel is a soft fabrication system that allows users to create a 3D
non-woven textile with various structural strengths. Our system coils wool yarn
onto a central reel to form a basic shape and uses actuated barbed needles to
refine it. By controlling the coiling tension and the felting times, our system
varies the density of the workpiece in a target area to achieve various
structural strengths. Specifically, our system controls the tilt of coiling and
felting using a Stewart platform around a motorized rotating reel. Our system
also allows different basic shapes with hollow internal structures to be formed
by changing the detachable reel core. We investigate the effects of different
felting needles, frequencies, and coiling directions that influence the
density, structural strength, and fabrication time of a workpiece. We propose
three methods to combine felting and reeling. We evaluate their performances
and final products by producing two example workpieces using our system. We
demonstrate several objects made by our working system and discuss its
capabilities and limitations.
