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NC State and K2 Solutions Work to Commercialize Canine Bite Sleeve

Person standing with canine bite sleeve on arm

NC State and K2 Solutions, Inc. (K2) have entered into an exclusive option agreement to further develop and commercialize a “Realistic Bite Sleeve” technology for canine training. K2 is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business based in Southern Pines, North Carolina that provides canine training, handler instruction, and other consulting services to national security and defense clients. K2 is pleased to continue their partnership with NC State, stating, “As a company committed to enhancing training methodologies for working dogs, K2 places focus on establishing partnerships that allow us to develop technologies and capabilities that truly contribute to all facets of training. The realistic bite sleeve is a natural progression in our efforts to improve the technologies that place operationally sound canines in the hands of law enforcement and military clients.”

The Realistic Bite Sleeve technology was developed by a diverse team of undergraduate students and professors from both the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry, and Science (TECS) and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State. Originally funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) and UNC-General Administration, the project won Best Overall Project, bettering 180 projects, at NC State’s Senior Design Day Competition in 2014. The NC State team worked closely with researchers from the ARO and active duty Army Soldiers from Fort Bragg to design a safe, durable, and realistic bite sleeve that mimics a human arm in order to create a more lifelike training experience for the canine.

Working dogs serve in a wide range of operational concepts within the U.S. military, from specialized search and patrol, explosive detection, and combat tracking to multipurpose tactical operations supporting the Soldier. Canine handlers wear bite sleeves for protection while training canines for bite work. Commercially available bite sleeves are manufactured out of a variety of synthetic or vegetable based fibers that are spun into coarse, strong threading that provide sufficient protection but are bulky and cumbersome.  While these sleeves protect canine handlers very well, they fail to provide canines with life-like bites during training. As a result, during tactical operations, a canine will disengage the target which poses a significant liability to the safety of not only the working dog but the Soldier that the dog supports. Disengagement usually occurs during a canine’s first bite and is primarily attributed to the tactile differences of a human arm versus a bite sleeve.

To address this limitation, NC State researchers fabricated multiple prototypes and compared them to the physical properties of the human arm. Through this iterative process of prototype development, with testing and feedback from Army canine handlers, the team developed a solution that balances the safety of the handler with that of the canine, while also mimicking the human arm.

“The Senior Design program in Textile Engineering (TE) and Textile Technology (TT) offers students a real-life experience in product design. To see a technology that the students worked to develop then be commercialized to a local company is a credit to the innovative nature of the students. Moreover, it is rewarding for our team to help the mission of the U.S. military in providing the best possible technology for their efforts,” said Dr. Jesse S. Jur, Assistant Professor and co-instructor of the TE/TT Senior Design program with Dr. Russell Gorga.

NC State has filed a patent application on the technology and will continue to work with K2 and the ARO as they further develop and commercialize the Realistic Bite Sleeve.