The UK’s first fashion production lab has invented its first collaborative robotic technology – ‘cobots’ – which can be trained to manufacture sustainable high value, low volume clothing. The cobot arms have the ability to stitch, draw, knit, and even 3D scan a mannequin or human body before prototyping a clothing design.
The £3.8 million Robotics Living Lab (RoLL) at Met’s Manchester Fashion Institute (MFI) will allow fashion designers and manufacturers to innovate and produce in a more sustainable manner, modernizing fashion manufacturing and addressing the industry’s need. RoLL intends to bring garment manufacturing back to the UK by inventing novel tooling and establishing new technology-driven creative capabilities, as well as aiding small to medium designer manufacturers in employing sustainable techniques to help reverse the fast fashion business model. RoLL is looking for industry partners for its study and is now in talks with a number of high-end, eco-friendly fashion businesses for its further inventions.
It is funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Work in Progress Pavilion, a low-carbon timber-framed building designed by architects Bennetts Associates, complements the lab by providing adaptable and functional office space, an exhibition, and a lecture theatre where RoLL’s work and research can be showcased, as well as a robot cell for demonstrations.
Susan Postlethwaite, Professor of Fashion Technologies at MFI and Director of RoLL, commented: “This launch is the culmination of years of planning, collaboration and research, and I’m delighted to showcase the important work of the lab.
“The fashion industry makes a huge contribution to the UK economy, however most of that comes from imported garments. RoLL will play a vital role in attracting the workforce back to the UK, upskilling human workers and offering world-class fashion design products that are locally manufactured.
“I believe that fashion must be taken more seriously when it comes to planning for our manufacturing future and should be included in a new industrial strategy. By using innovative and sustainable technologies here in Manchester, RoLL will help to reshape the agenda for the creative industry.”
