Automatic sewing machine with scanning camera system

Claim 1

Computerized sewing apparatus comprising: a sewing head mounted on a main frame; a workholder coupled to the main frame and comprising a flat holder mounted on a two dimensional manipulator for movement in the horizontal plane; a microprocessor drivingly coupled to said manipulator for causing the workholder to move relative to the sewing head; means for sensing the edge position of an object on said workholder comprising: an area scanning camera coupled to the sewing head and disposed for rotation concentric to a needle bar mounted in said sewing head and arranged for scanning a plurality of lines each tangential to an imaginary circle around the needle's piercing point in the sewing plane; four illuminating lamps coupled to said camera and disposed for diagonal illumination of the edge of said object being scanned; said camera comprising means for generating a first output signal corresponding to said plurality of scanned lines; encoder means coupled to said camera for providing a second output signal corresponding to the position of said camera; and processor means for activating said lamps and for receiving said first and second output signals and converting them into a third output signal corresponding to the edge position of said object, and providing said third output signal to said microprocessor; comparator means in said microprocessor to compare the actual edge position with the programmed expected edge position and to determine any deviation; and means coupled to said microprocessor for modifying the sewing path during sewing to compensate for any such deviation.