Robot "hand-eye coordination" leads the footwear manufacturing automation track
In the footwear industry, there have been no mature machines that can be as flexible as human beings in the face of soft fabrics and leathers.
In response to the confusion of automated production in the shoe and apparel industry, a high-tech enterprise located in Ningbo Tongcheng Bank Science and Technology Incubation Base has delivered an answer.
Led by Wu Huaiyu, a researcher from the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the company - Ningbo Three Bodies Intelligent Technology Company adopts 3D vision technology to realize robot "hand-eye coordination" and enters the most traditional industry of shoes and clothing.
With the support of the incubation base, the company has recently entered into cooperation with Aokang Group, the head brand of domestic shoe manufacturing, and developed the industry's first unmanned production line based on 3D vision technology, which has been put into production.
"Simply put, it means that the machine can 'see' like a human being and determine the shape and trajectory of the leather and fabric parts on the assembly line before processing them by 'hand'." Wu Huaiyu told reporters that the company has developed its own high-precision robot hand-eye calibration and path planning algorithm, with an accuracy of up to 0.01 mm.
With the support of core technology, this production line can produce 6,000 pairs of shoes per day, with a 230% increase in capacity.
Behind the excellent answer sheet, many people may have doubts - in the footwear industry, how difficult is it to achieve full-process automated production?
"If you look at it separately, apparel production equipment can be divided into pre-sewing, mid-sewing and post-sewing equipment. Generally speaking, the automation of the footwear industry is often stuck in the 'sewing' level." Wu Huaiyu said.
The "in-sewing" process accounts for 80% of the time and cost of the footwear manufacturing process. The glue spraying process, like the leather shoes, basically only relies on skilled workers, and the slightest deviation in the position and amount of glue can make a pair of shoes scrapped.
On the assembly line, the slightest folding and stretching of fabrics and leathers will make the "programmed" robots "baffled" and difficult to operate automatically.
In these years, Wu Huaiyu led experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Huawei, Microsoft and other units to overcome difficulties, and obtained more than 120 international and domestic invention patents, and presided over the development of China's 3D body scanning field is the first and currently the only national industry standard.
Through "3D vision + 3D flexible deformation simulation correction", Tribody Smart Technology has truly solved the most difficult core problem of footwear manufacturing for the first time in the international arena.
One of the production lines of Okang has 25 vision sensors, robots can locate the position of insoles and the shape of leather with their eyes open, and 10 industrial machines are the "hands" to carry out the work accurately.
Such technology also makes "batch customization" possible.
"Previously, in the footwear industry, mass production and private customization seemed to be a relationship between fish and bear's paw." Wu Huaiyu said.
Now, under the robot's "hand-eye coordination", it can realize the production of different models and sizes of products at the same time, and the fully automatic arbitrary switching only takes 1-3 minutes, which greatly saves the cost of customization.
The 3D digital foot model is created by stepping on a transparent glass plate. After the data is sent to the factory, the last processing, insole design and glue spraying are completed by the machine to make the shoes. It takes only one or two weeks from data collection to receipt of goods.
Focusing on the field of 3D vision for more than ten years, the relevant twin products of Trinity Intelligent Technology have been verified by the market. In the field of 3D body scanner, the enterprise's share in the domestic market has reached more than 50%.
"Realizing the automated production of leather shoes is only the first step. In the apparel industry, soft fabrics are more difficult to grasp, process and sew compared to leather. However, we have mastered the relevant core technology." Wu Huaiyu is full of confidence.
This battle of automation transformation of traditional manufacturing industry is slowly drawing the curtain.