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Berkeley Gets Willow Garage Robot To Fold Towels

Posted by Soulskill on from the thanks-rosie dept.

kkleiner writes "Researchers at UC Berkeley used Willow Garage's PR2 robot to fold towels. The UCB programming used some innovative visual scanning techniques, allowing the PR2 to pick up a towel, find its corners, and fold it on a table perfectly. According to the paper presented at the 2010 ICRA (PDF), the robot successfully completed 50 out of 50 attempts to fold a single towel, and also folded 5 out of 5 towels when they were presented in a group. Is watching a robot do laundry really that exciting? Hell yes — wait until you see the video! UC Berkeley used a Willow Garage robot to develop their own sophisticated robotics program. That validates the whole premise of the PR2 — faster development by letting researchers use a common platform. Score one for open source robotics!"

9 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. The first step towards a truly autonomous robot... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Obviously, this robot knows where its towel is.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Short and long, holes and no holes. by cosm · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real question is, will it match my socks?

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    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  3. Re:The first step towards a truly autonomous robot by nacturation · · Score: 5, Funny

    They could name it Ford Prefect, but a more suitable name would be Fold Perfect.

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    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  4. Towels are Lame! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real question is: Can it fold paper more than 7 times?

  5. Hotels by davidphogan74 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm sure there are some hoteliers that will be excited about reducing their staffing for for washing and folding all the towels and sheets they go through. Hospitals likely would love this too, since it wouldn't show up sick and help spread diseases on clean linens.

    1. Re:Hotels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You don't need this level of sophistication just to fold towels. The robot could just kind of flatten it out by tugging on different corners until it's flat, and then grabbing two corners and folding it over.

      Even easier would be just a big machine that pulls in a bin of linens and separates them onto rollers, which deposit them in piles.

      TFA states that the robot is not the best model to fold towels. It does demonstrate "open source" robotics. At one time, computers were dedicated, single use, machines. Now, an off-the-shelf robot can be programmed for various tasks. That's the point.

  6. Robotic Overlord by Naatach · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new robotic towel folding overlords.

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    There may be no "I" in team, but there's also no "F" in way.
  7. The video seems impressive... by mister_playboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The video seems impressive until you realize it has been sped up 50 times actual speed... it took more than an hour and a half to fold 5 towels!

    Cool, but very far from anything practical.

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    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  8. Re:Wife by CityZen · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'd have a splendid wife if she could program robots like that!