Method for securing a shoelace onto a shoe upper and an automatic shoe-lacing system
AssigneePou Chen Corporation
InventorsChien-Yu HSU, Wen-Pao CHANG, Yao-Hsin WANG, Wei-Hsin HSU
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Abstract
An automatic shoe-lacing system includes a support unit for supporting a shoe upper thereon, a robotic arm unit disposed to hold an end portion of a shoelace to move along an eyelet passing path through predetermined shoelace eyelets of the shoe upper, and at least one hook unit. The hook unit has a hook disposed to hold and tense a flexible lace body of the shoelace to prevent twist of the shoelace during the shoe-lacing operation.
Claims13
A method for securing a shoelace onto a shoe upper comprising steps of:
- a) providing the shoe upper and the shoelace, the shoe upper having a plurality of shoelace eyelets, the shoelace having two opposite end portions and a flexible lace body interconnecting the end portions;
- b) holding at least one of the end portions of the shoelace, by a robotic arm unit, and moving the at least one end portion along an eyelet passing path, wherein, along the eyelet passing path, the flexible lace body is held by at least one hook, and is extended through predetermined ones of the shoelace eyelets;
- c) during the movement of the at least one end portion along the eyelet passing path, moving the at least one hook relative to the shoe upper between an initial position, where the at least one hook is remote from the shoe upper, and a finished position, where the at least one hook is close to the shoe upper, wherein, during the movement of the at least one hook from the initial position to the finished position, the flexible lace body is tensed by the at least one hook, and in the finished position, the flexible lace body is removed from the at least one hook;
- and
- d) repeating steps b) and c) until each of the end portions of the shoelace passes through a predetermined number of the shoelace eyelets so as to secure the shoelace onto the shoe upper.
An automatic shoe-lacing system for securing a shoelace onto a shoe upper, the shoelace having two opposite end portions and a flexible lace body interconnecting the end portions, the shoe upper having a plurality of shoelace eyelets, said automatic shoe-lacing system comprising:
- a support unit on which the shoe upper is supported;
- a robotic arm unit which is disposed to hold at least one of the end portions of the shoelace and to move the at least one end portion along an eyelet passing path, wherein, along the eyelet passing path, the at least one end portion passes through a predetermined number of the shoelace eyelets, and the flexible lace body is extended through and secured on the shoe upper;
- and
- at least one hook unit including a hook and a hook driving assembly which is disposed to drive a movement of said hook in a first direction such that, during the movement of the at least one end portion along the eyelet passing path, said hook is disposed to hold the flexible lace body, and is moved relative to the shoe upper between an initial position, where said hook is remote from the shoe upper, and a finished position, where said hook is close to the shoe upper, and such that, during the movement of said hook from the initial position to the finished position, said hook is disposed to tense the flexible lace body, and in the finished position, said hook is disengaged from the shoelace.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.