Robotic manipulation of deformable objects remains a challenging task. One such task is to iron a piece of cloth autonomously. Given a roughly flattened cloth, the goal is to have an ironing plan that can iteratively apply a regular iron to remove all the major wrinkles by a robot. We present a novel solution to analyze the cloth surface by fusing two surface scan techniques: a curvature scan and a discontinuity scan. The curvature scan can estimate the height deviation of the cloth surface, while the discontinuity scan can effectively detect sharp surface features, such as wrinkles. We use this information to detect the regions that need to be pulled and extended before ironing, and the other regions where we want to detect wrinkles and apply ironing to remove the wrinkles. We demonstrate that our hybrid scan technique is able to capture and classify wrinkles over the surface robustly. Given detected wrinkles, we enable a robot to iron them using shape features. Experimental results show that using our wrinkle analysis algorithm, our robot is able to iron the cloth surface and effectively remove the wrinkles.
Robotic ironing needs multidiscipline and requires a quantitative analysis of garment unfolding and ironing motion. This paper investigates the trajectories and orientation of the ironing process where particular geometry is presented in an analytical way. The trajectories produced from this process are analysed and presented with mathematical models to be possibly implemented in robotic automation. This paper further investigates the orientation of iron during the ironing process. It is revealed that the orientation is dependent on the regions of garment and on the closeness to an operator. The orientation is then integrated into the trajectory and presented in a 3D form in which the vertical axis represent the orientation and horizontal axis represent the position. This type of orientation analysis is then used to find similarity in motions to determine the most effective and efficient way of ironing a garment. Automating domestic ironing is a challenge to the robotic community, particularly in terms of modelling and advanced mechanism design. This paper investigates the ironing process, its relevant folding algorithms and analysis techniques, presents the advanced mechanism synthesis and introduces cross‐disciplinary research. It summarises the second part of the results of a technology study carried out under an EPSRC grant “A Feasibility Study into Robotic Ironing”, and proposes new techniques in developing a folding and unfolding algorithm and in developing a task‐oriented mechanism synthesis for robotic ironing.