Application of robotics in garment manufacturing

Abstract Increasing labor costs have been the most important driver of sewing automation within the last 30 years. Very specific and in terms of sewing operation inflexible systems made automation in the sewing industry possible. In the beginning of sewing automation the focus was on technical applications. The use of robots to flexibly handle textiles during the sewing process has been proven, e.g., in the composite production. Semiautomated sewing units have been used to take over certain production steps, e.g., sewing of trouser pockets. Today machine manufacturers and research have developed new flexible transport mechanism to achieve high flexibility in terms of seam designs with low-machine investment.