One of the selected use cases for MERGING, a European research project on soft robotics manipulation, coordinated by CEA and involving 11 partners from industry and academia, is the textile industry. It is a good example of a sector that could benefit from automation, but faces huge challenges in handling textile materials. For the European clothing sector, innovation through automation could be a way to boost competitiveness and reduce outsourcing, but most manufacturing processes are still manual and often outsourced to countries with low labor costs. This leads to a trade deficit for Europe, which exports € 61bn worth of textile products, but imports € 109 bn. Automation could help reverse this trend.

Textile and clothing are vital for the European economy, with around 160,000 companies employing over 1.5 million workers and generating a turnover of 162 billion euros.

A robotic system that can assist human operators in the most tedious and exhausting tasks before the final product is stitched has been developed by researchers and engineers from various institutions within MERGING, a European research project on soft robotics manipulation. They have been working with SELMARK, a leading lingerie manufacturer based in Vigo (Spain).

The robots are responsible of taking textiles from the storage, then grabbing, placing and measuring them while preventing them from wrinkling. These operations are not feasible for traditional robotic manipulators designed for rigid objects, as they cannot easily adjust in real time to the unpredictable behavior of fabric. By automating these tasks completely or partially, personnel can be assigned to tasks that have more value added.

The MERGING solution comprises a pair of collaborative robot arms designed to operate safely alongside human workers. These arms are equipped with grippers developed by OMNIGRASP that utilize electroadhesion technology, leveraging electric fields to make objects adhere to their end-effectors. This feature enhances their ability to handle objects effectively. Additionally, AIMEN provides stereo vision technology, enabling precise perception and real-time tracking of textiles, allowing the robot’s movements to be adjusted as needed. CEA’s multi-modal programming by demonstration allows even inexperienced users to instruct the robot on task execution.
For high-level coordination, LMS’s Workcell Controller is employed to ensure runtime synchronization and monitoring of the execution process. Within SELMARK’s implemented robotic system, the robot arms carefully pick fabrics from a stack of textile materials, gently separating each layer from those below it. Subsequently, each ply is placed onto the thermoforming press, with the perception system promptly notifying if any wrinkles are detected. This integrated solution aims to enhance working conditions by assigning operators to less repetitive, more value-added tasks.

MERGING started in late 2019 and, within its four-year duration, it has worked on the implementation of innovative modules in the areas of handling, perception, cognition, and programming. Among others, the integrated demonstrator at SELMARK facilities consists of a benchmark not only for the robotics community but also for the textiles industry.

For more information: merging-project.eu

Media contact: [email protected]

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869963

That is why MERGING, a European research project on soft robotics manipulation coordinated by CEA and involving 11 partners from industry and academia, has chosen the fabrication process of fiber composites in the automotive sector as one of its key use cases.

When used in the automotive sector, composites can provide increased strength and stiffness while also reducing the weight of vehicles up to 70% compared to metallic alloys. The possibilities to shape them are also limitless. They already play an important role in the advanced transportation industry, in particular when it comes to reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

However, fiber composites are still more expensive than lightest metallic alloys, and before they become cost-effective, a decrease of up to 40% in production cost is required. One of the ways to achieve this objective is automation, but these materials pose several challenges to existing robotic solutions. Dry fibers are similar to conventional textiles and thus, highly flexible and highly deformable. Foam blocks are less flexible, but fragile. These individual component parts can be heavy and large, adding further challenges for manipulation.

Currently, manufacturing processes involve a series of manual handling operations of flexible Glass Fiber (GF) textiles in addition to reinforcement foam blocks. The complete workflow takes place on lay-up molds where all types of GF textiles and foams are positioned before resin infusion. The dimensions of the mold itself limit operator access to all areas, resulting in fluctuations in the performance in terms of production rate and quality, in addition to ergonomic issues that can affect workers.

Within MERGING, researchers and engineers from several institutions have worked with VDL Fibertech industries, a member of the VDL group and one of the Netherlands largest composite producers that operates in several markets. Together, they have developed a robotic system that can support human operators in the manufacturing of large composite panels by performing grasping, manipulation and placement of textiles and foam blocks.

The envisioned solution proposes a hybrid cell where humans and robots collaborate within a fenceless environment. LMS, as pilot driver, led the engineering of the system by designing a custom overhead dual arm manipulator. Together with the project’s research partners, namely CEA and AIMEN, besides its integrators, CASP and OPTEAMUM, they have enhanced its dexterity, perception, cognition and interaction capabilities through state-of-the-art hardware and software modules.

Starting with dexterity, LMS designed a multi-tool end-effector that is able to handle all composite materials, or perform layup operations, without excessive and time costly tool changes. In terms of perception, LMS in collaboration with AIMEN, have deployed a number of perception modules for fabric localization and quality assurance, besides human tracking for safety and interaction purposes. Towards even greater cognition, LMS implemented a physical model that accurately simulates the fabric’s deformation within co-manipulation, in real-time. An extension of this model empowers model-based co-manipulation of fabrics either in collaborative schemes or fully automated ones. CEA led the implementation of closed-loop controllers that allow the co-manipulation of fabrics or fragile objects without the need of external sensors, thanks to impedance control, or using sensor-enhanced gloves (allowing also intuitive tele-operation of distant robot arms). Rapid robot and system programming is enabled by the SPIRE framework of CEA, as well as by the Workcell Controller package, of LMS. The former package offers an intuitive environment for system orchestration and monitoring during runtime. For human-centricity, LMS implemented extended reality applications where operators can interact with the digital twin or receive support through intuitive content.

Successful integration and evaluation campaigns proved that the implemented system achieved the project’s specifications and sets new boundaries for robotic automation in composites manufacturing.

The composite industry is only one of the three use cases explored by the project, which also applied similar technologies to food packaging and textiles for clothing industries. MERGING is a four-year project, coordinated by CEA (Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives) in France, and it is involving academic and industrial partners from six countries: LMS (Greece), EPFL (Switzerland), AIMEN (Spain), SELMARK (Spain), VDL (Netherlands), Thimonnier (France), OMNIGRASP (Italy), IPC (France), CASP (Greece), and Opteamum (France).

For more information: merging-project.eu

Media contact: [email protected]

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869963.