We've already seen Willow Garage's PR2 robot learn to roam offices in search of a power outlet, and it looks like some researchers at UC Berkeley have now helped it pull off its most impressive feat yet: folding towels. That may not sound like too hard a task, but it's actually proven to be quite a conundrum for robotic laundry researchers, since robots need to first pick up a towel from a pile and then somehow determine that this previously unseen shape is, in fact, a towel that can be folded.
UC Berkeley scientists create towel-folding robot
Posted on Wednesday, April 07 2010 @ 1:26 CEST by Thomas De MaesschalckEngadget reports researchers at UC Berkeley have learned a PR2 robot how to fold towels. There still some work to be done though, as folding one towel still takes about 25 minutes.
