Award-Winning AI & Robotics for Fixture-Free Sewing

Principal Investigator: Professor Kazuhiro KOSUGE (Chair Professor of Robotic Systems from Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

This project is showcased in the fourth exhibition – Innovation for Impacts.

About the scholar

Professor Kazuhiro KOSUGE

Research interests:
•Systems Robotics – development and application of robotics to problems in real environments, which include human-robot interaction and coordination, handling and manipulation, assembly, dual-manipulator systems, multiple-robot coordination, and production and manufacturing.

Email: kosuge@eee.hku.hk
Website: https://www.eee.hku.hk/people/kazuhiro-kosuge/

Project information

Industrial automation is crucial for the century-old garment industry facing the rising labor costs and shortages. Current production methods use fixtures for partially automated sewing. Constant human intervention and dedicated fixtures are required for different styles and sizes. Sewing can’t be fully automated and is unable to keep up with the fast-paced fashion industry

Novelty

  • Machines lack fabric handling intuition like human workers.
  • Modern robots struggle with grasping and positioning limp and flexible fabrics.
  • Conventional grippers are equipped with built-in actuator(s) required electric motors or air pressure, sophisticated while expensive, lack of intuitive & user-friendly gripper for simple fabric picking task
Project video
Project images
AI & Robotics for Fixture-free Sewing
A suction port, this sophisticated end-effector achieved a 100% success rate over 100 trials with high precision
Features a passive pinch mechanism and a self-locking system for routine fabric pick-and-place.
Vision-based seam line tracking: Less than 0.1 mm average deviation across all stitch lengths tested
Other projects
Exhibition Mainpage