New robot can smooth and fold clothes

A Mexican researcher at the UK’s University of Glasgow has helped design the prototype of a robot that is able to separate, stretch, smooth wrinkles out of and fold clothes.

Gerardo Aragon Camarasa benefitted from EU funding. This technology participates in almost the entire washing process and the robot is unique by being able to separate each garment. The robot has two standard robotic arms with six degrees of freedom, technology that is used regularly in automated production lines of manufacturing cars.

Camarasa explains that in the robot both arms were mounted on a rotating base, this provides an extra degree of freedom needed for handling clothes and simulating the movement of the human waist. Regarding the sensors, the robot has a pair of grippers (tweezers) at each end to mimic a pair of fingers that can rub each other, giving the ability to perceive the texture of the material through touch.

The robot also has three Kinects that provide real-time 3D images and maps; these are located on the wrists and waist of the arms, serving for operation tasks. Research to develop the prototype was completed in January, though more work is needed to develop the final product.

Commenting, the Mexican researcher says: “The robot has an active head, which is the main contribution of the Glasgow project, that serves to capture high resolution and reconstruction of 3D maps, while the eyes move and focus the objects or points of interest in the clothes. The information processed by the head serves for accurate handling, recognising the type of material, and separating and defining structures such as wrinkles and edges.”

The project was sponsored by the EU under the Seventh Framework Programme. Other project members are CERTH in Greece, the University of Genoa in Italy, CVUT in Prague, and Neovision, a company from the Czech Republic.