IMAGINE a robotic tailor and you probably think of something like Ginsberg and Cohen, the fractious cyborgs in Woody Allen’s film Sleeper. Now a “sewbot” has been built for real and it’s far more capable, and less crabby, than Allen’s creations.
This is an impressive achievement; we have been trying to make machines that can manipulate soft materials for decades. The sewbot can measure, cut and stitch a garment with little help (see “Rag-trade robots: From body scan to bespoke suit“). We are entering a world of mass-produced tailor-made clothes.
There is admittedly something mundane, not to say comical, about a sewing robot. We still think of robots as doing macho and heroic things, like building cars or searching for earthquake survivors. The sewbot should help banish that myth and shape a more rounded view of robotics.
