Nike, Inc.

Grabit, Inc.

Nike Innovate C.v.

Chang-Chu Liao

Kuo-Hung Lee

Patrick Conall Regan

Chih-Chi Chang

Dragan Jurkovic

Ming-Feng Jean

Harsha Prahlad

Howard Fu

Hung-Yu Wu

Yen-Hsi Liu

John Matthew Farren

Chia-Hung Lin

Shih-Yuan Wu

Chia-Wei Chang

Susan Kim

Matthew Thomas Leettola

Richard J Casler

Po Cheng Chen

Wen-Ruei Chang

Kenneth Tan

Patrick Wang

John Mathew Farren

Aishwarya Varadhan

Chien-Chun Chen

Jon Smith

Honam Ko

Tsung Tai Chien

TaeHoun Kim

Qingde Chen

Greg Miller

Kuo-hung Lee

Chih-chi Chang

Taehoun Kim

Tae-Houn Kim

Patrick Regan Conall

An apparatus for buffing a shoe part includes a housing adapted to be articulated around at least a portion of the footwear part. A rotating spindle is positioned in the housing and has a buffing surface for engagement with the footwear part. A carriage is slideably connected to the housing and holds the spindle such that the buffing surface can be moved closer to and further away from the footwear part. An actuator is in the housing and in contact with the carriage. The actuator applies force to the carriage to increase the force of the buffing surface onto the footwear part. A biasing member is in the housing and in contact with the carriage. The biasing member exerts force onto the carriage in a direction opposite the force exerted by the actuator.

Shoe buffing system

Manufacturing and assembly of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by automated placement and assembly of shoe parts. For example, a part-recognition system analyzes an image of a shoe part to identify the part and determine a location of the part. Once the part is identified and located, the part can be manipulated by an automated manufacturing tool.

Automated identification and assembly of shoe parts

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, such as a pickup and placement of the shoe part with a pickup tool.

Automated manufacturing of shoe parts with a pickup tool

Systems, apparatus, and methods of manufacturing an article using electroadhesion technology for the pick-up and release of materials, respectively.

Methods and systems for electroadhesion-based manipulation in manufacturing

Manufacturing of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by automated placement of shoe parts. For example, a part-recognition system analyzes an image of a shoe part to identify the part and determine a location of the part. Once the part is identified and located, the part can be manipulated in an automated manner.

Automated identification of shoe parts

Systems, apparatus, and methods of manufacturing an article using electroadhesion technology, either as a sole modality of handling such materials or in concert with vacuum for the pick up and release of materials, respectively.

Methods and systems for combined negative pressure and electroadhesion-based manipulation in manufacturing

Systems, apparatus, and methods of manufacturing an article using electroadhesion technology, either as a sole modality of handling such materials or in concert with at least one mechanically actuated modality for the pick-up and release of materials, respectively. The mechanically actuated modality in one embodiment is configured as a netting configured to be placed over a contact surface of an electroadhesive plate to facilitate the handling of an object.

Methods and systems for electroadhesion-based manipulation and mechanical release in manufacturing

Manufacturing of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by executing various shoe-manufacturing processes in an automated manner. For example, shoe parts may be retrieved and temporarily assembled according to preset relative positions to form part stacks. The part stacks may be retrieved with the relative positioning of the shoe parts being maintained and placed at a stitching machine for more permanent attachment via stitching of the parts to form a shoe assembly. Movement during stitching of a conveyance mechanism that transfers the part stack from the stacking surface to the stitching machine and movement of a needle associated with the stitching machine may be controlled by a shared control mechanism such that the movements are synchronized with respect to one another. Vision systems may be leveraged to achieve movement and position information between and at machines and locations.

Automated assembly and stitching of shoe parts

Acquisition or pick-up tools that themselves aid in improving the ease with which images of an acquired substrate may be captured, and methods of operating such pick-up tools, are provided. The pick-up tools may include a pick-up surface adapted to interface with a foreign substrate and a light source integrated with the pick-up tool such that light emitted from the light source passes through the pick-up surface to the foreign substrate when the foreign substrate is temporarily coupled with the pick-up surface to create a silhouette of the foreign substrate. A vision system may be adapted for capturing the silhouette of the foreign substrate when the foreign substrate is temporarily coupled with the pick-up surface. The substrate pick-up surface may be formed of one of a transparent, a semi-transparent, or a translucent material such that light may at least partially pass there through.

Pick-up tool with integrated light source

Growing community of inventors

Douliu, Taiwan

Chang-Chu Liao