(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-07)
Book, Wayne J.; Winck, Ryder C.; Killpack, Marc D.; Huggins, James D.; Dickerson, Stephen L.; Jayaraman, Sundaresan; Collins, Thomas R.; Prado, Ronald J.
Attempts to automate the sewing process of garment manufacture have employed substitutes for human guidance of fabric into somewhat conventional sewing machines. A new approach has been proposed and partially verified in prototype form. It consists of several subsystems responsible for 1) gross fabric motion, 2) precision detection of the fabric location and 3) exact placement of the needle in the fabric. Gross motion employs steerable rollers capable of moving the fabric. Fine fabric motion employs vision sensing technology to count threads in the fabric. Exact placement employs servo controlled dogs for moving the fabric to exactly place the needles. This paper will explain the concept and the extent of verification of its realization.