Abstract
A 3-D automated sewing system with a direct-drive manipulator is proposed to improve productivity and to promote automation in the apparel industry. To keep high sewing precision and to avoid complex path-teaching, trace motion technique based on the hybrid position/force control is adopted for moving a sewing machine. The control algorithm is designed for a real time control of the actual 6 DOF manipulator. The experiments of circle sewing, assuming sleeve attaching task, show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm compared with the conventional teach and play-back method.
