Automated Straight-line Sewing of Stretchable Fabrics with Different Lengths

2026-07-31

AI Summary

Automated sewing of elastic fabrics with mismatched lengths poses significant challenges, requiring simultaneous high-precision alignment and stable tension control while stretching the shorter fabric. This work proposes DLRoSS, a robotic sewing system that introduces a novel four-stage automation pipeline integrating a six-degree-of-freedom manipulator with a custom roller-based end-effector featuring an active stretching roller and a passive anti-slip pressure roller. The design enables real-time length matching and tension stabilization during stitching. The system employs closed-loop roller speed control based on fabric length ratio and sewing velocity, along with coordinated motion planning. Experimental results demonstrate that the approach reliably achieves high-quality, straight seams across diverse material types and length combinations of elastic fabrics.

Abstract

Different Length Alignment Sewing (DLAS), which involves stretching the shorter fabric to match the longer one and sewing them together in a straight line, is a challenging task that needs to satisfy several requirements when automating the sewing process. To address the challenges, this research proposes a novel robotic sewing system, Different Length Robotic Sewing System (DLRoSS), which consists of a roller type end-effector, attached to a 6-DoF manipulator. The end-effector composed of active shorter and longer fabric rollers, and a passive press-roller attached to the shorter-fabric roller. Assuming that one end of the two fabric layers are initially positioned under the sewing machine's presser foot, the system automates DLAS by operating in four distinct phases. (P1) Fabric wrapping: Individual fabric layers are picked, held, and wrapped from the other end onto the feed rollers. (P2) Sewing: During the sewing, the shorter fabric is stretched and aligned with the longer fabric in real-time using roller velocity control based on the sewing speed and apriori known length ratio. (P3) Sewing completion: In the final sewing round on the fabric rollers, the press roller is engaged to prevent the stretched fabric from slipping off due to internal tension. (P4) Sewing fabric release: At the end of sewing, the fabric edge moves past the press roller, and the fabric releases from the rollers. Experimental results demonstrate that DLRoSS achieves consistent, high-quality sewing of stretchable fabrics of different materials and lengths.

Problem

• Different Length Alignment Sewing
• stretchable fabrics
• automated sewing
• fabric alignment
• robotic sewing

Innovation

• robotic sewing
• stretchable fabrics
• length alignment
• roller-based end-effector
• real-time tension control