Robots That Serve Beyond The Vacuum

Tim Brown of Mobile Robotics writes "While everyone has been debating the abilities of new robotic vacuum cleaners and their varying price tags, Siemens has quietly announced they have developed a 'Dressman' robot that will iron your clothes! (my least favorite household chore). Rumoured to be priced at US$1700 it seems expensive for an iron. But it appears that the Roomba's best work might be that it is ushering in a new era of innovation in home products. (Note very cool picture with the article.)"

Boooring.

[revmoo]

How is THAT a robot? It's a dummy that inflates with hot air(that you have to put the shirts on yourself, no less) that is supposed to save you $1700 worth of your time somehow.

Yeah right.

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not a robot

[Anonymous Coward]

yup, it's just a giant iron in the shape of a person. BFD!

personally, I'm waiting for the kitchen-floor Roomba robot mop.. I hate cleaning the kitchen floor with the spong mop, I wish there was a robot I could full up with Armstrong floor cleaner and let loose!

Re:Boooring.

[canadian_right]

I worked as a clothes presser at a dry cleaners ( a long time a go!), and that "robot" was a standard piece of equipment circa 1980, and it certainly was not a robot! We called it "the susan". It was used for suit jackets mainly as we actualy laundered shirts and pressed them because they were generally too wrinkled to look nice with a just good steaming. All the pressing equimpent shoots out steam, and is air-powered. There was a small iron for deatil work. We also had a similar machine for doing the tops of pants, and a big press for doing legs and bodies.

For a minute there I thought my back up career might in jepardym but looks like it is still safe.

Not worth the investment according to Test-Achats

[Raphael]

The consumer magazine Test-Achats/Test-Aankoop in Belgium has reviewed this item in its current issue. You can find the full article on their web site [test-achats.be], although it is only accessible for subscribers.

In summary, here is what the article says about this "robot" that irons your clothes: the quality of the results is not that good, there are still some wrinkles left in the shirts (this is OK if you wear them under something else, but not if you want to look smart wearing only a shirt). They gave it an "average" rating for the quality, while most of the traditional irons get a "good" or "very good". One of the main selling arguments for this expensive item is that it irons your shirts for you while you can do something else during the 10 minutes that it takes to do its work. But in practice, you need 2 minutes to put the shirt on and 2 minutes to remove it once it is ready. So if you have several shirts this device lets you do something else for one hour, but only in slices of 10 minutes so this is not ideal.

So it does not beat the good old low-tech iron...

Re:Too much for too little.

[tonyr60]

"What would really impress me is a washing machine that you could just through your clothes into and it would decide, based on the color and material of your clothing, what temperature and how much water to use as well as how long to run for and how much of what kind of soap to include"

Well this comes close....
http://www.fp.co.nz/Products/Laundry/Sm artDrive-Sy stem.html

How to get away without ever ironing (by a tailor)

[TheMCP]

I'm a tailor, and I teach advanced classes about shirts. You don't need this "robot". You shouldn't have to iron your cotton shirts. Here's how to never iron, but have your cotton shirts look like you did:

First, open every button on the shirt and remove plastic collar stays (if any) before washing.

When you dry, cotton shirts can be dried on "hot" in most American home dryers, but I use "medium" when I go to a laundramat because their dryers are hotter.

When you take your shirts out of the dryer, if they feel bone dry to the touch, you've over-dried them. You should be drying them less. They should feel as if they have just the slightest hint of moisture left in them, which should evaporate naturally within about a minute or so. Over-dried shirts will be wrinkly. Properly-dried shirts shouldn't be wrinkly.

If your shirts are dried properly but are coming out of the dryer wrinkly, your loads of laundry are too big. Wash and dry a little less stuff in each load. The general rule is, when you put the wet clothes in the dryer, they should take up a bit less than half the space inside the dryer.

Finally, you should get to the dryer as soon as it stops (not 10 minutes later: right away!) and take out your shirts and hang them up on clothes hangers. Do not use wire hangers, use plastic hangers (such as those available cheaply at Target or Kmart) or wood hangers. Wire hangers can cause the shirt to get funny misshapen wrinkles in the shoulders, which can only be removed by re-washing.

If you do these things properly, your cotton shirts will look smooth and professional with no ironing.

It ain't a robot, and it ain't new

[joseph_dcruz]

my local 5'Sec laundry in Kuala Lumpur has a similar gadget that's made out of an inflatable canvas sack attached to the steam generator they use for all their industrial irons. The Bangladeshi guys running the laundry use it more for long dresses and ballgowns rather than shirts. I'd take a picture to show you, but I'm in India right now and it's a helluva long way to go for karma points ;-)

Re:$1700 eh?

[luagnayr]

Actually, this can't be doing well. This article is from a couple weeks ago, and I saw one of these things at Wal-Mart in Munich (in the Europa Industry Park - for curious shoppers)last weekend for 900 . That's a pretty hefty discount for something that just came out. It seemed like an overpriced steamer. If I'd known it was a "robot" I would have cared.