
PR2 Very Close to Completing Laundry Cycle - spectruman
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/pr2-close-to-completing-laundry-cycle#.VG4Xc9W3_E8.hackernews
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snowwrestler
Fun for parents: replace every mention of the robot in this article with your
teenager's name and see if they are doing better or worse.

We could be facing the teen laundry equivalent of Deep Blue defeating
Kasparov!

~~~
mikeash
Just making an attempt, however futile, would outmatch many teenagers. Build a
little three wheeled thing that bumps into the nearest washing machine and
you've already beaten that game.

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dmritard96
Innovation I have been waiting for - and would love to build if set free from
endless employment is an automatic laundry solution: takes clothes from dirty
bin, places in washer, then dryer (or combo) and then folds or hangs and puts
away. The reality is that the home laundry systems are not well built for
automation which is where a lot of the challenges are introduced. It might
need to be something integrated into the closet or drawer system. I like to
think of it as encapsoluted. I would put my dresser and hamper so that I have
access and behind it is the robot which would grab the dirty clothes and
refill the clean drawers.

The other one is pretty analogous - dishes are a giant waste of time. One
awesome hack is having two dishwashers and then never using your cabinets, but
its pretty hacky. The clean way is to integrate the output of the dishwasher
with the cabinet.

I would pay serious money for this simply because of how much of my life is
wasted dealing with clothes and dishes. The collective man hours world wide of
these tasks is actually probably pretty insane.

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mrfusion
I completely agree. Another bad design is bathrooms. I think they should be
designed and be sealable like the inside of a giant dishwasher, and then just
turn on a cleaning cycle to clean the entire bathroom.

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mkramlich
I once read about a system that works like that. I believe it was a self-
contained unit that was intended to be deployed out in a public place,
outdoors, like a "port-o-potty" but more high-tech. Japan? Europe? Somewhere
like that.

(On a related note, I have way too many specific ideas about how to do
restrooms right. I've literally written documents about it, made checklists,
done designs, etc. Most public restrooms Fail in one or more ways, usually
several. Feels like should be a solved problem with best practices in place
everywhere. Not rocket science.)

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tizzdogg
Various public restrooms in San Francisco work like that. I have heard of
people trying to stay inside to watch the washing happen by tricking the
occupancy sensors. I'm not sure if this ends well ever.

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timdorr
This is what I've called The Third Machine for a while now.

    
    
      The First Machine - Washer   
      The Second Machine - Dryer   
      The Third Machine - Folder
    

I want to be able to buy The Third Machine.

~~~
Animats
It exists: [http://www.foldimate.com/](http://www.foldimate.com/)

On a commercial scale, big laundries have automatic folding machines. Clothing
plants have folding, bagging, and sealing machines.

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mikeash
That one looks fairly weak. The video implies fairly strong requirements on
placing the clothing to be folded on the machine. Do other machines exist
which just accept a bundle of crumpled up, undifferentiated clothes?

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scentoni
Seems like this would be drastically simplified using a
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combo_washer_dryer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combo_washer_dryer)
such as these [http://www.homedepot.com/b/Appliances-Washers-Dryers-All-
In-...](http://www.homedepot.com/b/Appliances-Washers-Dryers-All-In-One-
Washer-Dryer/N-5yc1vZc3ot)

~~~
dominicgs
This was my exact thought and it would be even simpler if Monotub[0] or
Orbit[1] existed/worked.

I know this is really about AI challenges rather than washing clothes, but the
list of steps seems more complex than it needs to be. For example, I already
put my dirty clothes straight in to a laundry basket. I don't think I'm ever
going to need a robot to scoop them off the floor for me, I can't imagine my
time being so valuable that I can't put my shirt in the basket.

[0]
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1740246.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1740246.stm)

[1]
[http://www.coroflot.com/tiffanyroddis/orbital](http://www.coroflot.com/tiffanyroddis/orbital)

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modeless
Having a robot use a washing machine is awesome, but couldn't we cut out the
middleman and just have the robot "hand" wash the clothes? I like the idea of
replacing most special purpose appliances with general purpose robots. Instead
of having a separate washing machine, clothes dryer, dishwasher, stand mixer,
blender, cuisinart, toaster, trash compactor, icemaker, breadmaker, rice
cooker, and garbage disposal, your general purpose robot could handle it all
with a few tools.

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AceJohnny2
Despite the awesomeness of the robotics achievement, I can't help but be
mildly disappointed this isn't about cstross' works:
[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2011/01/laundry-...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2011/01/laundry-reading-order.html)

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aculver
Please add "empty pants pockets" to that list of a complete laundry cycle.
Otherwise the only thing PR2 is close to is ruining all my clothes. :-) Lip
balm, pens, crayons, etc.

And while we're at it, it also needs to treat any stains, otherwise you may
make them worse. :-)

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organsnyder
In my household (with my wife and I doing the laundry), items in pockets are
considered to be unacceptable input for the laundry chute, with undefined
behavior. I imagine that many other households are similar. It'd be a bit
unfair to hold the robots to a higher standard.

Similar for stains: They need to be treated before they go into the normal
laundry cycle, and are often given special treatment for the entire process.

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aculver
Garbage in, garbage out, eh? :-) Well then the robot needs to stop picking up
clothes off the floor. ;-)

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nathan_f77
This is really fantastic progress. I've always wanted to build a fully
automated home, which would include a laundry robot like this.

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Animats
That's great! I thought that effort died with Willow Robotics, but it
continues.

