ABB Robots and the Automation of Garment Making

From 1940s sewing floors to humanoids loading sewing machines: where ABB's GoFa cobot and Robotic Fashion Inductor fit as robots move into clothing making.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/23/20261 min read

Clothing has always been made one seam at a time by a person at a machine. In 1944 a Sydney clothing factory looked like rows of power sewing machines with an operator bent over each one. Electric motors made the needles faster, but a human still guided every piece of cloth under them.

Black and white photo of a clothing factory floor with rows of sewing machines and workers

Workers at power sewing machines in a Sydney clothing factory, 1944. Photo: Sam Hood / State Library of NSW via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Eighty years later most garment work looks much the same, only in Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh City or Nairobi instead of Sydney. Fabric is soft and stretchy and it changes shape as you move it, which is why sewing stayed manual long after car bodies and circuit boards were built by robots.

Men sewing at machines in a crowded garment workshop with clothes hanging on the walls

Tailors at work in a garment workshop in Dhaka. Photo: Kroisenbrunner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

On September 16, Textiles Resources reported an ODI economist's estimate that by 2034 robotic garment production in the United States could cost less than paying workers in Kenya. In China, Jack Technology has ordered 2,000 humanoid robots for apparel plants, where they load fabric onto sewing machines and place pockets.

Woman guiding plaid fabric under an industrial sewing machine lamp

Sewing still depends on a person guiding soft fabric under the needle. Photo: Tessa Bury / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

ABB doesn't sell a sewing robot. Its role would be the handling around the machines. A GoFa cobot already loads and unloads CNC machines next to people in small factories, and the same kind of arm could feed cut panels into an automatic template sewing station and stack the finished parts.

White ABB GoFa cobot arm with a gripper next to a machine and stacked metal parts

An ABB GoFa cobot loading parts into a machine at a small factory. Photo: ABB

The garments also have to be packed and shipped, and ABB has worked on that part. Its Robotic Fashion Inductor picks bagged clothes off a pile and places them on a sorter. People have done that job by hand in online fashion warehouses because every bag slumps a little differently.

ABB robot with a suction tool above a conveyor holding a bagged garment

ABB's Robotic Fashion Inductor places bagged clothes onto a sorter. Photo: ABB

I don't think robots will replace the whole sewing floor soon, but more of the fabric handling will be automated each year. The bigger change could be where clothes are made. If a robot line costs less than cheap labour, some factories may move closer to shoppers, and a jacket could one day be sewn to your measurements a few kilometres from home.

Three white and grey ABB GoFa cobot arms of different sizes on a grey background

ABB's GoFa cobot family, arms sized for work next to people. Photo: ABB

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