Robo-top: The machines that could make your next t-shirt

They assemble cars, they perform surgery, and they even handle cargo at airports. But give most robots a needle and thread, and they would probably come undone. Those workers may use tools such as sewing machines but fully automating such labour is difficult.

"You have a problem if it's sewing," says Cam Myers, founder and chief executive of California-based CreateMe, a robotics company. "You have to keep [two pieces of fabric] in alignment under motion." His company takes another approach. Forget sewing – glue the pieces of fabric together instead. "Once the adhesive is laid down, you simply line something over it and stamp." CreateMe has designed robots that do this and the firm is already making women's underwear this way. It will begin producing t-shirts, too, in the coming months. Mass production could follow next year. Roboticists have eyed the garment manufacturing industry for decades. If machines could ever take over such work, clothes-making could come back to countries in the West, and the environmental footprint of garments might be slashed in the process. But millions of textile workers could also be out of a job. Just a few percent of clothes sold today in the UK are made here . It's a similar story in the US . Myers says he has customers seeking to market garments as "made in the US", with US-produced cotton, for example.

Key points

• "You have a problem if it's sewing," says Cam Myers, founder and chief executive of California-based CreateMe, a robotics company.
• "You have to keep [two pieces of fabric] in alignment under motion." His company takes another approach.
• Forget sewing – glue the pieces of fabric together instead.
• "Once the adhesive is laid down, you simply line something over it and stamp." CreateMe has designed robots that do this and the firm is already making women's underwear this way.
• It will begin producing t-shirts, too, in the coming months.