Today, we throw roughly nine kilos of textiles in the garbage – per person and year.
Now that can be a thing of the past with the help of an AI machine that fixes defective clothes.
– It’s about creating a new Teko industry in Sweden, says Ellen Flybäck, who is a sustainability consultant and leads the Mikrofabriker project.
A stain disappears with embroidery, two shirts with tears are sewn together into one. Suddenly, a defective garment can be used again.
At the Science Park in Borås, a digital remake machine for clothes is being developed, which it is hoped will be the future of Swedish fashion. A must when, in less than two years, all EU countries must have laws and systems in place to prevent clothing and textiles from ending up in the garbage and being burned.
From 1 January 2025, textile waste must instead be sorted at source according to EU waste legislation. Exactly how it will be done in Sweden is not clear, but Science Park in Borås hopes to contribute with the digital production line that is now being developed.
AI learns what a spot is
On the roof inside the Textile Fashion Center in Borås runs a production line where garments are transported on hangers. Along the line there are various stations where the garments are seen, mended and redesigned.
Ellen Flybäck and her colleagues have received lots of clothes from, among other things, charities. Clothes that have a defect and cannot be reused as is. The Remake machine identifies defects on garments and automatically applies design elements such as embroidery, patches or prints so that the garment gets new and extended life.
With the help of sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence, the work becomes significantly faster and more efficient than manually sorting and doing the work. The artificial intelligence is learning to analyze images of the clothes. It needs to know what a spot is, what a hole looks like and what you can create new. Human labor is still needed for the manual work itself, and according to Ellen Flybäck, it is simply a matter of man and machine working together.
Free to copy
Alternatively, you can choose to let the computer decide what to do with the defective garment, or the customer can choose for himself.
Businesses are welcome to visit Borås to see and learn. The model may be copied directly for those who wish.
– Sweden can lead the way with automated solutions for repairs, remakes and second-hand fashion. In this way, we can create the conditions for competitive companies in a future billion-dollar industry, says Ellen Flybäck.
Microfactories are aimed at companies interested in designing innovative, efficient and sustainable production concepts for the textile industry.
The aim is to explore the potential for automation and digitalisation.
The project started in 2020 to last for three years and is a collaboration between Science Park Borås and Automation Region and is financed, among other things, by Tillväxtverket and Vinnova.