Automated manufacturing of shoe parts
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorPatrick Conall Regan
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Abstract
Manufacturing of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by executing various shoe-manufacturing processes in an automated fashion. For example, information describing a shoe part may be determined, such as an identification, an orientation, a color, a surface topography, an alignment, a size, etc. Based on the information describing the shoe part, automated shoe-manufacturing apparatuses may be instructed to apply various shoe-manufacturing processes to the shoe part.
Claims20
A method for automated assembly of shoe parts, the method comprising:
- detecting, using a part-recognition system, at least one characteristic of a first shoe part;
- determining an identity and/or an orientation of the first shoe part based on the at least one characteristic;
- and
- automatically transferring, using a manufacturing tool, the first shoe part onto a second shoe part into alignment for assembly based on the determined identity and/or orientation.
A system for automated assembly of shoe parts, the system comprising:
- a part-recognition system configured to:
- detect at least one characteristic of a first shoe part, and
- determine an identity and/or an orientation of the first shoe part based on the at least one characteristic;
- and
- a manufacturing tool adapted to automatically transfer the first shoe part onto a second shoe part into alignment for assembly based on the determined identity and/or orientation.
A method of assembling a system used for automated assembly of shoe parts, the method comprising:
- coupling a computing device to a part-recognition system configured to:
- detect at least one characteristic of a shoe part, and
- determine an identity and/or an orientation of the shoe part based on the at least one characteristic;
- and
- coupling the computing device to a manufacturing tool that is configured to automatically transfer the shoe part onto another shoe part into alignment for assembly based on the determined identity and/or orientation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.