Masdar Smart City and Robotics - GineersNow Engineering Magazine Masdar: The Future of Sustainable City in Abu Dhab | Page 39

Photo by: youtube/Laundroid
THE
WORLD’S
FIRST
LAUNDRY-
FOLDING
ROBOT
Anyone who has tried to live
alone (and by alone, I mean no
household help, not even part-
time) will most probably agree
with me that folding clothes
is such a pain in the arse. I
mean, come on! It personally
takes me some three tries
before I can successfully fold
a simple short-sleeve shirt, let
alone a long sleeve one. I am
sometimes just tempted to
fold each of the clothing item
the way I want just to get the
chore done and over with. If
there is a device that can do
the washing and the drying,
why isn’t there that can do
the folding?
Well, folks, our wait is over!
Presenting the “laundroid” –
a device that can wash and
dry clothing, then identify
each clothing item and neatly
fold them up. The Japanese
technology, produced by
Panasonic, together with
Seven Dreamers and Daiwa, is
about the size of a refrigerator,
and is said to be capable of
folding a t-short in about five
to 10 minutes.
Wait, what? Ten minutes!
The creators admit that
laundroid’s present turn-
around time is exceedingly
long compared to manual
work, but it is committed
to shortening that and also
reducing the product’s size as
soon as it hits the market by
2017.
Laundroid’s trump card is its
ability to recognize the type of
clothing and to fold the item
by means of its robotic arm.
It has an automated opening
in the center in which the user
can toss the piece of clothing.
The machine accepts the item,
then after folding it, tosses it
out neat and tidy.
The makers of laundroid plans
to integrate the device with its
user’s home by 2020, in that
the user can simply dump their
used clothes into laundroid,
and the machine itself will put
them in their proper closet
spaces once washed, dried
and folded. The creators, as
early as now, envision that
laundroid will be most useful
in hospitals and nursing care
facilities, which require an
exceedingly high volume of
items to be washed, dried and
folded.
A prototype of laundroid was
demonstrated at the CEATEC
trade fair, Japan’s biggest IT
and electronics fair.
JULY 2016
Future Cities & Robotics
39