Fabric Manipulation Using Rubbing Motion for Local Edge Alignment

In this paper, we propose a new fabric manipulation method for the top layer of two layered pieces of fabric. The fine motion of the top fabric layer is controlled by rubbing the surface of the top fabric with the robot end-effector of a rigid conical rod with a hemispherical tip. The proposed method is inspired by a human skill to align fabric edges by rubbing the top fabric with his or her fingers. The top and bottom fabric edges can be precisely aligned through multiple rubbing motions controlled by the observed misalignment of the fabric edges. We perform the local edge alignment experiments of the cuff parts with three different fabrics along their longitudinal direction using a single manipulator with the conical rod end-effector. The experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately align the edges of the fabric.