Fixture-Free Sewing System

Sewing automation has been explored and semi-automatic sewing systems have been introduced to the market. These systems were designed to allow the operator to perform the sewing process without much training. Most semi-automatic sewing systems use fixtures to hold the pieces of fabric being sewn together. The fixtures need to be adjusted or redesigned for each fabric type, shape, and size. The semi-automatic sewing systems can only be used for mass production of garments. To address the issue, we propose a fixture-free 2D sewing system using a dual-arm manipulator. This system can sew two stacked layers of fabric pieces along a printed seam line of the top fabric piece, eliminating the need for fixtures. The proposed method incorporates vision-based seam line tracking control, which accurately guides the fabric stack sewn together along the printed seam line. The motion of both the aligned fabric pieces and the sewing needle is cinchonized. Our approach improves the accuracy and the adaptability of sewing processes, thus contributing to the advancement of automation in garment manufacturing.