Abstract
From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents o btained the following quote: “Despite technological advances and the introductio n of automation in many types of manufacturing, the manufacturing of fabric arti cles, such as garments, remains very labor-intensive. Sewing machines were inven ted in the early nineteenth century and were made possible based on the developm ent of the lock stitch sewing technique. Today, some hundred and fifty years lat er, this same technology remains the foundation of garment manufacturing. The mo dern process of producing large quantities of ready-to-wear apparels relies heav ily on manual labor, and remains inefficient relative to other industrial manufa cturing processes. Garment manufacturing includes multiple steps including sizin g, folding, fitting, cutting, sewing, and material handling. The unique and vari ed properties of individual fabrics, such as weight, thickness, strength, stretc h, and drape, as well as the complex nature of certain tasks, complicates materi al handling and automated garment manufacturing.
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