Toshihiro Hamada

Robot system for cloth handling

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories are severe because of dusts, heats and steams. To automate these factories, the robot system with 3-D Vision systems and a flexible hand are dispensable. To handling the flexible clothes, it is required to recognize the 3-D shape of flexible clothes. To handle the clothes, a robot hand with high freedom of degree should be introduced. Here, 3-D robot vision systems with stereo cameras and a pattern projector have been developed to apply the cloth handling, and a cloth handling robot system with a flexible hand has been developed. In this paper, the experimental development of the cloth handling robot system has been introduced.

A study on handling system for cloth using 3-D vision sensor

To automate linen supply factories, we have been developing the flexible objects handling robot system. This system is constructed of two multi-joint robots on which a 3-D vision sensor is mounted. In order to handle flexible objects by this system, it is necessary to be able to determine the grasping attitude of robot-hand based on the shape of the flexible object. Especially, in this case, the grasping attitude and approach direction of the robot-hand must be parallel to the surface of a cloth for handling like a human. Therefore, the proposed system selects the adequate grasping point and approaching direction of robot-hand using the orientation and position of a corner of a cloth. Experimental result shows that our system has ability to handle a cloth by two robot-hands.

Design of cloth handling robot system

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories are severe because of dusts, heats and steams, and full automation systems which can handle clothes are highly required. To automate these factories, the combination of 3-D Vision systems and flexible handling mechanism are dispensable to handle flexible clothes. But they were not so successful. Here, the cloth handling task has been analyzed and the best combination of the sensors and the mechanisms has been pursued. The experimental system has been developed and proved its efficiency.

Recognition of marks in many texture noises on washing clothes

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories are severe because of dusts, heats and steams, and full automation systems which can handle clothes are highly required. To automate these factories, a cloth handling robot system has been developed. The system consists with two robots, 3-D vision systems, flexible hands to handle clothes and mechanisms to help robots. It can handle face towels and hand towels. But to handle the bath towels, it is required to recognize the marks on bath towels. The marks on bath towels are written as a texture. The image of the towel marks contains many noises, and it is hard to recognize the mark in many textures. Here, to recognize the marks, the recognition method using HOG features has been introduced. The HOG feature space distances make robust recognition of marks on cloth textures.

Study of cloth handling system for industrial use

To automate linen supply factories completely, we have been developing the flexible objects handling robot system. The purpose of this system is to input washing clothes to the pressing and folding line which is still operated by human operators. This system mainly consists of the two multi-joint robots with flexible hands, the vision sensors with stereo cameras and a pattern projector. There are three steps to handle clothes. They are; (1) to pick up one cloth from piled clothes, (2) to grasp one corner of a cloth, (3) to grasp one edge of a cloth. Experimental result shows that our system has ability to handle a cloth.

Status estimation of cloth handling robot using force sensor

To automate linen supply factories, a Cloth Handling Robot System has been developed. This system can pick up a small towel from the piled towels and place it to following process. But a large towel such as bath towels, sheets, etc, may be tangled with other clothes in this system. In order to solve the problem, it is necessary evaluate the status of cloth handling when it picks up clothes. In addition, it is necessary to develop an evaluation system without changing the existing system. In this paper, the status estimation method of handling robot using a force sensor has been introduced. Experimental result shows that our system can be used in the application of checking foreign objects mixed at lines and prevent the damages of pulling up clothes.

Flexible handling robot system for cloth

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories are severe because of dusts, heats and steams, and full automation systems which can handle clothes are highly required. To automate these factories, 3-D Vision systems and flexible handling mechanism are dispensable to handle flexible clothes. There are three steps to handle clothes by robots. They are ; (1) to pick up one cloth from piled clothes, (2) to grasp one corner of a cloth, (3) to grasp one edge of a cloth. In every step, proper combination of mechanisms and vision systems are required. Here, the vision systems and flexible cloth handling mechanisms to input washing clothes to the a pressing and folding line have been introduced.

Cloth handling system for linen supply indust

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories of linen supply industry are severe because of dusts, heats and steams, and full automation systems which can handle clothes are highly required. To automate these factories, two clothe handling systems have been developed. One is the system to input the washed clothes to the pressing and folding machines. The other is the system to classify the dirty clothes from hotels and hospitals according the kind of clothes, such as sheets, covers, pillow covers and others. To construct the systems, there have been developed many key technologies, such as 3-D vision systems, a towel mark recognition system, a force sensor system, a long stroke drawing robot hand and partially constrained corner pulling out mechanism, etc. Using these key components, two clothe handling system have been constructed. Several experiments show that these systems have achieved required success rate of the clothe handling.

Towel mark recognition system for washing cloth handling system

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories are severe because of dusts, heats and steams, and full automation systems which can handle clothes are highly required. To automate these factories, a cloth handling robot system has been developed. It can handle face towels and hand towels, successfully. But to handle the towels including bath towels, it is required to recognize the marks on them. The marks on bath towels are weaved in cloth. The image of the towel marks contains many texture noises, and it is hard to recognize the mark in many textures. Here, to recognize the marks, the inclined lighting system and the recognition method using HOG features have been introduced. The HOG feature space distances make robust recognition of marks on cloth textures. The system have embedded to the cloth handling system and proved its efficiency.

Vision system and flexible robot hand for cloth handling robot system

Flexible objects such as clothes are hard to be handled by robots. But the working conditions for laundry factories are severe because of dusts, heats and steams. To automate these factories, 3D vision systems are dispensable to recognize the 3D shape of flexible clothes. Here, 3D robot vision systems with stereo cameras and a pattern projector have been introduced to apply the cloth handlings, and a cloth handling robot system has been developed. In this paper, the 3D robot vision systems and the cloth handling robot system with a flexible robot hand has been introduced.