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Today, sewing relies on the low-tech power of human hands, but soon that may not be the case. Human workers are still needed for the final steps of making clothes, in order to align fabrics and correctly feed them into sewing machines. If robots could do that instead, shock waves of change would surely ripple through global supply chains and disrupt the lives of millions of low-wage earners in the developing world.
For better or worse, plenty of technologists, researchers, and companies are working on the challenge—but so far, getting robots to navigate the imprecisions of flimsy textile materials that easily bend has proven elusive.
One promising solution, though, has come from an unlikely place: the sleepless brain of Jonathan Zornow, a young freelance web developer with no previous background in robotics, manufacturing, or the apparel business. His project, Sewbo, recently demonstrated the world’s first robotically sewn garment, and the inspiration came while watching a late-night Science Channel show called How It’s Made.
“I would watch How It’s Made to help me fall asleep at night, because I found it meditative and soothing to see the machines performing constant repetitive tasks,” Zornow told me. “In one episode they did blue jeans. In this case there were no machines doing serene repetitive motions. There were people involved every step along the way, and rather than help me fall asleep, it kept me up.”
It’s true that in almost every scene of the blue jeans episode, there’s the distinctive presence of human fingertips. Zornow got stuck asking why there weren’t robots there to perform the stitching, and what clicked for him while watching the show was the realization that getting robots to handle the complexities of a material that bends is difficult.

"The standard approach to robotic sewing has been to counter the complexity of working with fabrics, with equally complex machines."

Robots are good at tasks that are precisely the same each time, but with clothing, the flimsiness adds a layer of complexity robots can’t yet handle.
The solution Zornow then came up with is almost laughably simple. Instead of pouring millions of dollars into fancier robots, he decided to find a way to stiffen the clothes in order to make them suitable for robotic machines.
“When I looked into it, it seemed that the standard approach to robotic sewing has been to counter the complexity of working with fabrics, with equally complex machines,” he told me. Instead, Zornow removed the complexity by making the fabrics stiff.
He decided to use a water-soluble polymer that washes out in warm water and can temporarily stiffen fabric, meaning the robot is handling a precisely-defined object when stitching the garment. The inspiration for that came to him while reading an article in Make Magazine that explored the water-soluble support structures for 3D printers.
To prove out the concept, Zornow rented an off-the-shelf robotic arm, which he used to demonstrate the approach. Then, last year, he formally announced the project as the first time a robot has been able to sew a garment. And he’s now pursuing the project full time to turn it into a business and was even invited to a robotics manufacturing consortium sponsored by the US Department of Defense.

The eye-catching part of Zornow’s breakthrough isn’t so much the technology used or the specific idea. Other promising high-tech solutions are being pursued and some have even tried, unsuccessfully, to automate sewing by stiffening clothes with starch.
What’s stunning is that since the 1980s, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent trying to automate garment sewing, yet a single curious kid empowered by random ideas from the internet was able to address the challenge with a different (and relatively low-tech) approach. And beyond simply having the idea, Zornow had access to the robotic tools to actually pursue the concept, which due to cost would have been the stuff of dreams just a few years ago.
On display is a phenomenon entirely new in recent history, where big idea breakthroughs can come as much from individuals with access to the internet as from a heavily-funded research lab inside a government or corporation. It’s also an age where experts are being upended by radical outsiders, where leading biotechnology startups are being founded by aerospace engineers, and novice amateurs can routinely outperform experts in data science tasks.
In the age of the internet, we’re seeing the accelerating forces of ideas spread, and one where a single kid in Seattle can try to reshape a $1 trillion dollar global industry.
Whether Zornow’s solution will actually make meaningful headway into the apparel industry is uncertain, but ultimately his triumph is in showing that good ideas come from strange places.
Image Credit: Sewbo Continue reading →

BEI Kimco Meets Challenging Robotics Application
Requirements with Three High Torque Density Frameless Motor Designs

VISTA, Calif,− Jan 9, 2017 – BEI Kimco, a brand of Sensata Technologies, is developing new motor designs to meet the torque loads and size requirements in the rapidly growing robotics industry. The company recently met demanding Brushless DC (BLDC) Motor needs for use in a multi-axis assembly robot for semiconductor and other light manufacturing applications.

Key to the robot’s design specifications was a motor that would support peak torque loads ranging from 85 oz-in to 531 oz-in within the highly compact frame sizes of 2.6”, 3.0” and 3.8” in O.D. The compact size of each motor design was necessary to fit within the articulating robot wrist, elbow and shoulder axis. Additionally, the motor needed to be robust enough to handle continuous duty cycles.

To meet these essential performance needs, BEI Kimco developed the DIP26-08, DIP30-11 and DIP38-13 frameless motors. Utilizing the most advanced simulation and modeling software, optimal torque/thermal performance was achieved under continuous duty operation. All three motor designs incorporate new rotor magnet material configurations which have only recently become available for volume applications. This enables a more simplified, cost effective manufacturing process.

Image by: BEI Kimco“Motors used in modern day assembly robot and material handling equipment applications must be extremely reliable and cost efficient,” says Matt Lesniak, Sensata Technologies VP of Industrial Solutions. “The robotic technologies previously developed for use in military and aerospace applications are now being successfully used in new industrial applications. New material sourcing and cost efficient manufacturing options are now making it economical for these types of products to be adapted for use in a variety of industrial and medical applications.”

For more information, contact BEI Kimco, Tel: (760) 597-7042; Toll-free: (800) 572-7560; Fax: (760) 597-6320; email: sales@beikimco.com; www.beikimco.com.
About BEI Kimco
BEI Kimco specializes in the design and manufacture of high performance rotary and linear motion components, including Brushless DC Motors and Voice Coil Actuators. These products are designed for applications where performance, precision, and reliability are critical. Using proprietary magnetic design methodologies, BEI Kimco has the ability to produce custom, cost efficient products within multiple manufacturing locations. BEI Kimco is a leader in medical, industrial, aerospace & defense markets.
BEI Kimco is a brand of Sensata Technologies.

www.beikimco.com

About Sensata Technologies
Sensata Technologies is one of the world’s leading suppliers of sensing, electrical protection, control and power management solutions with operations and business centers in fifteen thirteen countries. Sensata’s products improve safety, efficiency and comfort for millions of people every day in automotive, appliance, aircraft, industrial, military, heavy vehicle, heating, air-conditioning, data, telecommunications, recreational vehicle and marine applications. For more information, please visit Sensata’s web site at www.sensata.com
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Swift Navigation Announces a New GPS Module for Robots
Piksi Multi Provides Robotics Manufacturers with a Multi-Band, Multi-Constellation High-Precision GNSS Receiver, at a Breakthrough Price
Swift Navigation™, the San Francisco-based startup building centimeter-accurate GPS technology, has announced its newest product, Piksi™ Multi, and the robotics industry is going to want to take notice of this multi-band, multi-constellation high-precision GNSS receiver. Just as Swift’s original Piksi module ushered in a new era of precision GPS affordability, the new Piksi Multi represents a revolution in robotics positioning with advanced precision GNSS capabilities for the mass market.
Swift Navigation solutions utilize real-time kinematics (RTK) technology, providing location solutions that are 100 times more accurate than traditional GPS. The robotics market will benefit from Piksi Multi’s improved localization and control as well as fast initialization. The product was designed for high-volume integration, a cost-saver for robotics manufacturers.

Autonomy begins with accuracy. Whether a robotic project requires automated navigation on land, in the water, in the air or space, Swift’s software-based approach and RTK solutions offer an optimal combination of centimeter-level accuracy, low cost and and easy integration. Applicable use cases include automated lawn mowers, highway landscaping, golf course and sport field maintenance, unmanned aquatic vehicles, routine process optimization, robotic delivery vehicles, construction vehicle monitoring and other robotic applications requiring vehicle heading and centimeter-accurate robotic systems control.
Image Credit : Swift NavigationPiksi Multi supports GPS L1/L2 and is hardware-ready for GLONASS G1/G2, BeiDou B1/B2, Galileo E1/E5b, QZSS L1/L2 and SBAS. Multiple signal bands enable convergence times measured in seconds, not minutes. Multiple satellite constellations enhance availability in various environments. Piksi Multi also enables customers to run Linux OS on its second core; allowing users to quickly prototype and adopt their own applications in a well-known and widely-used environment.
In addition to the GNSS Module, Swift announced a new Piksi Multi Evaluation Kit — upgraded with all new components. The kit is intended to allow users to rapidly prototype and get an RTK solution up and running right out of the box. Swift’s new Evaluation Kit contains two Piksi Multi GNSS modules (for rover and base station), two integrator-friendly evaluation boards containing many I/O ports for testing, two GNSS survey-grade antennas, and two high-performance radios, delivering best-in-class reliability and range — well over 10 kilometers — and all of the cables and other accessories required for rapid prototyping and integration. The Piksi Multi GNSS Module is priced at $595 and the Evaluation Kit is priced at $1,995. For more information, visit Swift’s online store.
Swift Navigation was built on the notion that highly-precise RTK solutions for the robotics market should be offered at an affordable price. Piksi Multi also embraces the foundation of unmatched affordability and top-level benefits for robotics customers include:
Centimeter-Level Accuracy, using RTK
Fast Convergence Times, using Multi-Band
Robust Positioning, using onboard MEMS Hardware
Open Platform, with onboard Linux
Rapid Prototyping, with a comprehensive Evaluation Kit
Future-Proof Hardware with In-Field Software Upgrades
Swift Navigation expects Piksi Multi to ship in early Q1-2017. The company is accepting pre-orders in its online store at www.swiftnav.com. Follow Swift on Twitter@Swiftnav.
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Engineers have fitted dragonflies with tiny backpack controllers that connect directly to the neurons controlling the insects' flight. Continue reading →