Review on automatic grasping technology and arrangement methods for garment pattern pieces
Significance Garment manufacturing and processing are progressing to intelligent manufacturing following the concept of"machine instead of man".However,in the off-loading sector of the garment industry,the stacking of cut pieces from the cutting machine is currently carried out primarily by manual gripping and separation,which forms a"bottleneck"limiting the further intelligent development in garment manufacturing.Focusing on this problem,this paper reviews and summarizes the research progress in automatic gripping technology and arrangement methods for garment ply,aiming to provide reference for the development of gripping methods for a variety of fabric materials and shapes.Progress This paper reviews the current global research status of intelligent gripping technology and the arrangement methods for garment pattern pieces.Specifically,the principles and applicable fabric ranges of air-pressure suck gripping,electrostatic gripping,needling gripping,robotic gripping and soft finger gripping are analyzed,and their layouts on the fabric surface are summarized and divided into three categories,i.e.blind gripping,single-point gripping and multi-point collaborative gripping.Literature shows that the soft finger gripping technology has a broader application potentials and would play an important role in future development of intelligent grasping technology for garment pattern pieces.It is envisaged that the intelligent gripping method combined with machine vision technology and other artificial intelligence technology is an important research direction for the future.Conclusion and Prospect According to the literature research,Bernoulli suction cups work better with leather than fabrics,whereas negative pressure suction cups are often appropriate for moving a whole stack of materials.Electrostatic is more appropriate for textiles made of chemical fibres.Mechanical gripping and needling are less taxing on fabric material.Needles,however,are better suited for lightweight materials,and they are likely to pierce the material and result in quality issues.Mechanical gripping is more likely to induce creases on the surface of the fabric.Research on Coanda suction cups and soft finger grasping is still in its early stages.The advantages of soft material,easy control,economic efficiency,and gentle finger grasping have made this new type of garment cutting piece gripping technique one of the most marketable.Future gripping technologies should enhance gripping accuracy,repeat positioning accuracy of the gripping head,convenience,economical layout methods,intelligent garment cutting piece gripping,to make a breakthrough in order to better accomplish the goal of"machine instead of man"in garment pattern piece gripping.