It's hard to teach a robot to sew.

教机器人缝纫是非常困难的。

Robots are good at handling materials that are rigid¹ and easy to lift, cut and maneuver².

机器人擅长处理易于拿起、剪切、调转的硬质材料。

But it's a different story with making clothes. Why? Fabric³ is floppy⁴.

但做衣服却是另一回事。为什么？因为布料质地柔软。

Jonathan Zornow's startup Sewbo in Seattle, the US, has found a way around that.

乔纳森·佐尔诺在美国西雅图创立的初创企业Sewbo找到了解决方案。

The solution was to temporarily stiffen⁵ fabric with a water-soluble polymer, making it rigid enough for a robot to handle.

这个方案就是利用水溶性聚合物将布料暂时硬化，达到机器人能处理的程度。

In 2015, Zornow, quit his day job as a web developer to focus on developing his robotic sewing system.

2015年，佐尔诺辞去了网页开发师的工作，专心研发机器人缝纫系统。

He rented a programmable robotic arm and bought a standard sewing machine and an ultrasonic⁶ welder⁷.

他租了一个可编程的机械臂，买了一架标准缝纫机和一个超声焊接机。

His goal was to program the robotic arm to fully assemble a T-shirt from start to finish.

他的目标是为机械臂编程，让它从头到尾完整地缝制一件T恤。

It followed a sequence of functions: a machine cuts cloth panels to be sewn, the panels are drenched⁸ with the polymer and stiffened⁹, a robotic arm uses suction cups to lift each panel and position it in the sewing machine.

缝制一件T恤要经过一系列程序：机器裁剪衣料以便缝制，用聚合物浸湿衣料使其硬化，机械臂用吸盘拿起每块衣料，将其放在缝纫机上。

Finally, the robotic arm lifts the stitched T-shirt off the sewing machine.

最后，机械臂再将缝好的T恤从缝纫机上拿起来。

"A single robot wouldn't perform all these tasks. It would be two or more robots along the assembly process," said Zornow.

佐尔诺表示:"单独的一个机器人不能完成所有的这些任务。整个装配过程需要两个或者更多的机器人。"