Robotics for Garment Production System

Speaker

Kazuhiro Kosuge, The University of Hong Kong

Co-author

Abstract

It is expected that the global revenue in apparel market will reach two trillion US dollars. However, the use of industrial robots in the textile industries is almost zero. Garment manufacturing is one of the most labor-intensive industries. In apparel assembly, 80% of the total production time & cost is used for material handling. 67% of the labor is involved in sewing-related works and sewing accounts for approximately 80% of the fabric linkages, and about 40% of the total production cost. Global issues such as aging populations, labor shortages, and environmental crises threaten the future of the apparel industry. Today's semi-automated technologies developed for garment production assume mass production of each garment, and many of the garments produced are discarded before being used. Unlike the handling of a rigid object, which has been automated by today's industrial robot technologies, the handling of fabrics and garments cannot be easily automated. In this presentation, we will overview some of our recent research results on robotics for sewing automation and garment handling and will discuss how AI and ML technologies can be applied to the challenging issues in garment manufacturing.

Speaker Bio

Kazuhiro Kosuge is Director of the JC STEM Lab of Robotics for Soft Materials, Chair Professor of Robotic Systems, University of Hong Kong. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1978, 1980, and 1988, respectively. From 1980 to 1982 he worked at DENSO Co., Ltd. After serving as a research associate at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Associate Professor at Nagoya University, he joined Tohoku University as a Professor in 1995. He served as Distinguished Professor of Tohoku University from 2018 to 2021. He joined the University of Hong Kong in 2021 as Chair Professor. He served as Science Advisor, Research Promotion Bureau, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (2010-2014), Senior Program Officer, JSPS (2007-2010), and Selected Fellow, Center for Research and Development Strategy, JST (2005-2012). He served as 2020 IEEE Vice President for Technical Activities, IEEE Division X Director for 2015-2016, and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society President for 2010-2011. He is IEEE Life Fellow, JSME Fellow, SICE Fellow, RSJ Fellow, JSAE Fellow, and a member of Engineering of Academy, Japan. He received Medal of Honor, Medal with Purple Ribbon, from the Government of Japan, in 2018.