A fully robotic washing system can put laundry in the washing machine, select the right program, and unload it again. All this to test washing machines.
Electronics Researcher Gianluca Pallic at the Italian University of Bologna and his colleagues have developed ‘a completely robotic washing system’ in collaboration with Electrolux, a Swedish manufacturer of washing machines. It consists of several robots that detect, pick up, and load dirty clothes into a washing machine. In addition, they read the display of the machine and choose the correct wash cycle. As soon as the garments are clean, the robots take them out of the machine again.
The washing robot system is unfortunately not available for purchase in the store. It is only intended to assist washing machine manufacturers in testing their washing machines†
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Soft, malleable objects like clothes are difficult for robots to handle, so the team outfitted the system with a 3D camera. A perception algorithm represents the objects as a collection of points in space. This helps the robot recognize creases that it can grab, so it can easily pick up clothes from the floor.
The team used a different algorithm to see if there were any clothes left in the washing machine. The robot then tries to grab it “by pushing in the middle and closing its hand,” Palli says, just like human hands would.
Warm or cold wash
Finally, thanks to a deep-learning algorithm, the robot can examine and interpret the operation of the washing machine and then select the correct washing function.
Electrolux is already using a prototype of the system at a factory in Italy, Palli says, to test new washing machines with as little human effort as possible. The researchers also plan to develop robotic systems for testing other appliances, such as dishwashers.