Smart Robotic Pattern Drawing For Pakistan\'s Textile Industry

Project Title

Smart Robotic Pattern Drawing For Pakistan\'s Textile Industry

Project Area of Specialization Artificial IntelligenceProject Summary

It is very obvious that design on garments and fabrics is the basic need of today. Designs such as text, logos, patterns or names on fabric are required for different purposes. Almost all of us agree that creative designs ensure attractive and beautiful looks on garments and fabrics. According to the differences in consumer objects, taking functions and so on, designs on clothing are based on the type of event for which they are being used. No one wants to have a design on their clothing that is not relevant to the occasion or function.

The development of digital design printing machines is a major change within the textile design process as a designer is no longer restricted to a number of colors or repeat patterns and may include photographic images and intricate detail in their design work. Digital printing machines could not find their place in the printing sector because of the fact that their costs were high and their non availability to the local markets for customers. Most of these digital printers are not suitable for small scale businesses. Thus, due to affordability and operability issues of such machines, most small businesses need to draw designs using the traditional printing press method.

Low-cost designs on fabrics and garments have become a basic need of small-scale textile industries and small businesses. Today’s textile industry requires producing large numbers of products having quality designs and drawing on it. The cost associated with available digital printing machines is high and thus it is an issue of affordability at low scale industries and businesses. Due to this reason, the availability of such facilities to the people is very rare and very expensive.

Achieving quality designs on clothing with minimum cost can be done with our proposed smart pattern drawing machine, which can be controlled by computer to make work easier with ultra-precision  and with low production and installation cost. Working with automatic mechanical equipment demands precise, accuracy, speed, consistency and flexibility. In this case it takes the help of embedded computer applications to do the job, thus making it easy for users to operate.

Project Objectives

• To fulfill the need for low-cost and highly precision pattern drawing systems for small-scale industrial use.
• To allow small businesses to make high quality drawings on garments at a minimum cost and better quality.
• To Provide design options to choose and draw their custom designs on clothing.
• To allow customers to make designs on their clothing for special events, festivals, parties and gatherings.

Project Implementation Method

We will use the following sensors and tools to implement this project:

Tools:

• Arduino Uno
• Servo Motor
• Stepper Motor
• Linear Rail
• CNC Shield
• Smooth Pulley
• Stepper Drivers

Software

• Arduino IDE
• Inkspace
• LaserWeb

Interface

         This is a smart intellgient hand-based Robotic system for Pakistan's Textile Industry with low cost manufactured which accepts input from users through SmartApp terminal  in order to print the shape, logo, text etc on T-shirt, Shirt, garments, etc, on the run time without delay and less cost manufactured device on printing such shapes on garments.

It is a novel ideal developing for smart and small business with low cost manufactured handling various demands of customers to print shapes, logos, text on their garments.

Benefits of the Project

the project will benefit the small scale industry by providing low-cost drawing on garment facilities in the local markets, thus making it affordable for small scale businesses. The proposed system will provide people with accessibility to their own wanted designs on their clothing, such as T-shirts. The proposed system will help in creating a competitive environment for quality designs and drawings on clothes, thus helping the fashion industry, though at minimum cost. The system will allow people to design their clothing similar to the occasion for which they are being used.

Screen printing requires a great deal of skill, expertise, and training, but our proposed smart pattern drawing machine makes it easy to create quality printed garments without having to hire a team of employees who have years of experience in the industry. The same person who takes the order can print the garments and prepare them for delivery. Since it is too small, so Even in a busy, crowded shop, you likely have space for a smart pattern drawing machine. Smaller space requirements make our proposed machine an option for printing businesses of all sizes.

Thanks to its multiple applications in different kinds of textiles garments (T-shirts etc). it is one of the best printing technologies to expand your present business. Since it has no setup cost, it makes it an ideal option for small scale businesses.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The project is based on the idea of CNC system which stands for Computer Numerical Control.  The idea behind this project is to make a smart robotic pattern drawing machine which can draw images or pictures on surfaces like fabrics. It uses three stepper motors as linear actuators on each axis X, Y & Z. While printing / drawing, the proper synchronization of all these three axes, i.e. stepper motors, is most important task. It uses G-code to command a pen to draw images on fabric surfaces. Arduino and CNC shield are mainly based in the CNC machine. In this system, two kinds of motors are used to make movements. They are two stepper motors and a metal gear servo. Stepper motors are used to control the positioning X-axis and Y-axis. A metal gear servo is used to make pen up or pen down on Z-axis. Stepper drivers are used to control the stepper motors and CNC shield protects the driver from over-current loading and provides power supply to the servo. In future, we want to add a motion sensor so that it can detect any distraction / interruption in machine's work so that it can pause work at that time until the interruption is stopped.

The design of the system is divided into two parts The Hardware Implementation system and The Software procedure of the system. 

After hardware implementation is done. the CNC shield V3 is mounted on the Arduino board. Two A4988 microstepping motor drivers are set on the X-axis and Y-axis slots of the shield and Nema 17 stepper motors are connected to the driver. Power supply is connected to the CNC shield. The system is provided, with the picture that wanted to draw, which is changed to ‘plain SVG file’ with Inkscape software. After generation of the plain SVG, gcode is created with the LaserWeb software. And then gcode is fed to the arduino in which GRBL coreXY firmware is uploaded. The power supply (12V) is connected to the CNC shield and the CNC shield accepts the data from the arduino. Signals from the CNC shield run to the axis drivers and spindle signals to the servo. The motors of the machine start its motion in 3-dimension and draw the required design.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry ITOther Industries Education Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies 3D/4D PrintingSustainable Development Goals Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and ProductionRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	28100
Arduino Uno	Equipment	2	3000	6000
Stepper Motor	Equipment	2	2000	4000
Linear rail	Equipment	2	4000	8000
CNC shield	Equipment	2	600	1200
Smooth pulley	Equipment	2	200	400
Tooth pulley	Equipment	2	350	700
Gt2 timing belt	Equipment	2	700	1400
Stepper drivers	Equipment	2	500	1000
Contact switches	Equipment	2	150	300
Mini servo	Equipment	2	400	800
Power supply adapter	Equipment	2	400	800
wooden board	Miscellaneous	2	500	1000
stationary items	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000
Binding	Miscellaneous	1	500	500
Printing of Thesis	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000