Automated Handling of Garments for Pressing

The overall objective of this project is to acquire the knowledge necessary for a totally automated pressing system which loads a complete garment or sub-assembly on a form, smooths it for pressing and unloads the press. This will be achieved in three year-long phases 1 Development of enabling knowledge and subsystems for modeling, sensing, grasping and manipulation, and control, with integration architecture 2 Creation of a working prototype which integrates the subsystems, and proof-of-concept at the alpha research site and 3 Commercialization through beta site implementation in partnership with equipment vendors. The state-of-the-art has been advanced in three areas modeling of limp materials sensing of positions and conditions of seams and garment parts and the automated loading of garment parts on pressing machines. The feasibility and practicality of coordinating all physical activities of loading trousers onto a pressing machine with seams aligned and without wrinkles in a single, continuous, automated operation has been demonstrated.