> I suspect we’re at least five years away from those rather ordinary capabilities in robots.
I agree, and I think it will be even longer before people are comfortable with a clothes-folding robot in their home even if the capability is technically there.
As much as I would love to never fold a t-shirt again, I’m also not willing to pay likely thousands of dollars to put a bulky set of robotic arms in my laundry room that moreover pose a non-zero risk of injuring somebody, particularly a child. If it’s skilled enough to turn things inside out with a sudden flick, it’s also skilled enough to poke your eyes out with a flick.
I feel like if the goal is to simplify people’s lives, the entire process of laundry needs to be re-imagined, from the basket to the return to closet. It should essentially be a black box - I toss my dirty clothes in a hole, and behind the scenes the washer and dryer decide what to wash in what loads and when, fold or hang the dry clothes and return them to storage (drawer or closet). The home layout may need to be reimagined to place all of these unit operations in close proximity.
Or, you reimagine washing/drying as more of a clean-in-place process - like the closet doubles as both storage and as washer/dryer and the robotics move the cleaning supplies to the clothes, rather than vice versa. The same could be applied to dishes - the dishwasher is the cabinet.
Another interesting opportunity arises when you automate batch handling - you can spread out the cleaning process to be more continuous. Rather than do huge loads, you can soak each item as they become dirty and take more advantage of residence time, which will use the water and detergents more effectively.
There are so many opportunities for reinvention of cleaning processes in the home, it feels like automating the way humans currently do it is inefficient for many reasons.