Robotics Living Lab at Manchester Fashion Institute

这项拟议的投资将产生一个世界级的微型数字时装生产设施。它所支持的研究将为英国服装制造商推动新形式的高响应商业模式，鼓励新形式的研究伙伴关系，并使英国时尚实践研究能够影响碳中和制造业的政策变化。Living Lab将在多个领域产生巨大影响，受益者包括机器人、数字、工程和时尚领域，并导致英国时尚制造业的转型重新配置，以实现可持续的未来。曼彻斯特时装学院是曼彻斯特城市大学艺术与人文学院的一个独立实体，它将重新利用MFI中心的两个空间——配备一个高度可见的展示空间——机器人生活实验室——和一个正在进行的工作空间。时尚实践研究由Living Lab的设计师/研究人员领导，与中小企业时装设计师/制造企业以及数字和机器人工程合作，是敏捷、数字化时尚产业愿景的核心。自动化提供了在制造过程中创新的能力，英国可以成为小规模、在岸生产领域的领导者。然而，中小企业需要负担得起工具，这使得成本和可访问性成为任何新开发的两个驱动因素。MFI的机器人生活实验室将构思、测试和开发新的工具解决方案，以承认创新的制造工艺为小型时装设计企业带来了新的价值主张。在这个新领域中，未来的工具建议以机器人桌面/桌面解决方案、构建自己的/模块化系统或多用途机器人的形式出现，这些机器人可以灵活运行，既可以学习又可以建议制造过程和排序。CAD软件的新发展进一步使每次工具使用的能源使用预测成为可能，这表明在生产周期中人工智能支持的碳监测能力很强。为了促进以设计为主导的制造技术的可持续发展，并朝着碳中和的方向发展，企业热衷于避免单一的解决方案，从而使他们能够充分利用对新的入门级机器的投资。对未来工作的预测强烈表明，工程和设计之间的差距将继续缩小。使用新工具将使设计师能够利用技术创造高质量的工作，为创造性地实现就业建立能力。新配置行业的工具需要用户友好且适合不同能力的人使用，直接支持在岸议程并加强当地供应链。这两个相互连接的基地的高水平可持续再利用和改造反映了对改善气候危机、净零制造和可再生能源作为核心原则的承诺。对于这一愿景来说，重要的是实验室的可见性和新的庭院展示，以展示实践研究，吸引学生、游客和学者到实验室工作。通过批判性的评估、质疑和对传统时装制作和消费方式的思考，该实验室将使学生成为更有见地的设计师、制造者、制造商和技术专家；公众应成为更知情的消费者；学者成为跨学科研究实践和发展联合方法的热情合作者。

This proposed investment will generate a world-class micro-scale digital fashion production facility. The research it enables will drive new forms of highly-responsive business models for UK garment manufacturers, encourage new forms of research partnerships and enable UK Fashion Practice Research to affect policy change towards carbon neutral manufacturing. The Living Lab will be hugely impactful across multiple sectors with beneficiaries include the robotics, digital, engineering and fashion sectors and lead to the transformative reconfiguration of the UK fashion manufacturing industry needed for a sustainable future.Manchester Fashion Institute, a standalone entity as part of The School of Arts and Humanities at Manchester Metropolitan University, will repurpose two spaces at the heart of MFI - equipping a highly visible showcase - a Robotics Living Lab - and a Work in Progress (WIP) space. Fashion Practice Research led by the Living Lab's designer/ researchers in collaboration with SME fashion designer/fabricator businesses and digital and robotics engineering is central to the vision for an agile, digitised fashion industry. Automation offers the capabilities to innovate in manufacturing processes where the UK could become a leader in the field for small scale, on-shored production. However, tooling needs to be affordable for SMEs, making cost and accessibility the two driving factors for any new development. The Robotics Living Lab at MFI will ideate, test, and develop new tooling solutions in an acknowledgement that innovative manufacturing processes bring new value propositions to small fashion design businesses. Future tooling recommendations in this new field come in the forms of robotic tabletop/desktop solutions, build-your-own /modular systems or multi-use robotics that can run flexibly and both learn and suggest fabrication processes and sequencing. New developments in CAD software further enables predictions of energy usage per tool use suggesting strong capabilities for AI-enabled carbon monitoring during production cycles.To facilitate skilful design-led manufacturing that is sustainable and moves towards being carbon neutral, businesses are keen to avoid mono-solutions therefore enabling them to fully leverage the investment in new accessible entry-level machinery. Predictions for the future of work strongly suggest the gap between engineering and design will continue to shrink. Working with new tooling will allow designers to leverage technology to create quality jobs, building capacity for creatively fulfilling employment. Tooling for a newly configured industry needs to be user-friendly and adaptable for use by differently abled people, directly supporting onshoring agendas and strengthening local supply chains.The high levels of sustainable repurposing and retrofitting of the two interconnected sites reflects a commitment to ameliorating climate crisis, net zero manufacturing, and renewables as core principles. Important to this vision is the visibility of the lab and the new courtyard showcase to demonstrate practice research and attract students, visitors, and academics to the work of the lab. Through critical appraisal, questioning and holding to account the way fashion is traditionally made and consumed the Lab will enable students to become better-informed designers, makers, manufacturers, technologists; publics to be better informed consumers; academics to become enthusiastic collaborators in transdisciplinary research practice and in developing joint methodologies.