The Surprisingly Simple Invention That Allows Robots to Make Clothes

singularityhub.com

10 points·eternalban··6 comments

Not a huge surprise: this is why shirts arrive starched -- the starch made the fabric stiff and easier for humans to handle when cutting and sewing.

The article mentions starch in passing but doesn't point out why it was used in the first place, which makes the invention seem more magical. The actual invention is finding something washable that can deal with the rougher handling by robots.

I read it as a fable of simple but effective solutions. Your reminder of starch actually underlines that point.

I wish they'd use starch again, instead of "water soluble polymers." The oceans don't need more plastics.

Now only if we had a robot that folded clothes from the dryer.

During my brief search into this before I found one consumer device - https://www.foldimate.com/ but wasn't a winner for me (having to pin up the shirts doesn't make it worth it imo)

And there's a video from 2011 but it's a huge humanoid robot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FGVgMsiv1s not something people would have in their home.

it's interesting how there are so many things to be solved/discovered. Giving the amount of precision that robots can achieve today, or how advanced robotic vision has become, even if the "sewing problem" was already solved using multi-million dollars, the given solution would be interesting (and cheaper) anyway.

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