Vision-based automation of laser cutting of patterned fabrics

Abstract

A machine vision system was developed to work in combination with a laser robot cell, in order to fully automate cutting of patterned and deformable fabrics. The system exploits shape-based matching for online CAD-lace alignment in robot coordinates. Also, it enables an extremely easy programming very similar to current manual alignment practice, but done in a graphical environment and only once at the beginning of the production of each new reference. The results obtained in lace cutting are compliant with existing quality standards and thus support the validity of the proposed approach. The major benefits are the suppression of die cutters thanks to the use of laser technology and the automation of manual low value repetitive tasks. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.