![thumbnail for Efficient Transfer Planning for Flat Knitting](/publications/2018-flat-xfer-plan.png)
Efficient Transfer Planning for Flat Knitting
![swatch knit with control-stretch-expand transfer plan](not-leaf-cse-full.jpg)
![swatch knit with schoolbus transfer plan](not-leaf-sb-full.jpg)
![swatch knit with schoolbus+sliders transfer plan](not-leaf-sb+s-full.jpg)
![zoom in of control-stretch-expand swatch](not-leaf-cse-crop.jpg)
![zoom in of schoolbus swatch](not-leaf-sb-crop.jpg)
![zoom in of schoolbus+slider swatch](not-leaf-sb+s-crop.jpg)
Collapse-stretch-expand
25m 37s
25m 37s
Schoolbus
6m 28s
6m 28s
Schoolbus+sliders
6m 49s
6m 49s
Abstract
Industrial knitting machines form fabric by manipulating loops of yarn held on hundreds of hook-shaped needles. Transfer planning algorithms generate a sequence of machine instructions that move loops between their current needles and given target needles. In this paper we describe how to compute the run-time cost of a transfer plan in terms of machine passes, and compare the plans generated by several existing and new transfer planning algorithms under this metric over a a large benchmarking set of transfer operations taken from example flat lace patterns, along with synthetically generated patterns.