Berkeley Gets Willow Garage Robot To Fold Towels 99
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!"
The first step towards a truly autonomous robot... (Score:5, Funny)
Short and long, holes and no holes. (Score:5, Funny)
Excellent (Score:0, Funny)
But before I file for my divorce, I need to know if they also were able to match socks from the laundry.
Re:The first step towards a truly autonomous robot (Score:5, Funny)
They could name it Ford Prefect, but a more suitable name would be Fold Perfect.
Towels are Lame! (Score:4, Funny)
The real question is: Can it fold paper more than 7 times?
obl (Score:1, Funny)
they took our jerbs!
Aw finally. I was never afraid of toasters but... (Score:1, Funny)
This thing can pierce and twist any and all of your innards - game set and match.
Skynet: 1
Human race: Dead
Wife (Score:3, Funny)
Robotic Overlord (Score:4, Funny)
TowelNet (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I need this. (Score:3, Funny)
>If this thing could fold halter tops, (especially the ones with the built in bra things) I would happily shell out some loot for one. Women's clothing is a strange, strange beast.
This *is* slashdot, I don't think anyone here is going to have that problem.
Re:The video seems impressive... (Score:4, Funny)
I dunno. Sometimes I can go years without folding the towels. I'm going to have to call "improvement" on this one.
Re:Wife (Score:5, Funny)
You'd have a splendid wife if she could program robots like that!
Yay! Domestic robots! (Score:2, Funny)
Here kitty kitty (Score:2, Funny)
Pun intended (Score:2, Funny)