Arrangement of soft fingers for automatic grasping of fabric pieces of garment

It is a global challenge in the textile and apparel industry to grasp and separate fabric pieces automatically using mechanical devices. This paper summarized studies on grasping a textile cutting piece by different principles and mechanical systems, and focused on bionic soft fingers made of silica gel. In the study, we first tested single-point grasping to explore the factors that influence the grasping effects of soft fingers, and found that (a) the grasping margin is a crucial factor that influences the effect of grasping, (b) the sides and the directions of a piece play important roles in grasping, and a reverse side and a vertical direction often bring better results of grasping, and (c) although the opening distance of a soft finger is significant to the result of grasping, successful grasping is a joint result of the grasping margin and the opening distance. We then experimented with the arrangement of soft fingers, and discovered that (a) the shape and the area of a cut piece are the determinants for the number of soft fingers that have to be used, (b) a soft finger is needed at the intersections of a piece to guarantee unfolded grasping and transferring, and (c) the number of soft fingers to be used for a specific grasping task can be estimated after major factors are determined. The conclusion we proposed is easy to understand and is convenient for training or application in an industrial production. In the future, it is expected to be applied to the intelligent production of clothing.