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Hate Doing Laundry? This Is the Robot for You

Laundroid aims to recognize, sort and fold individual garments
Machine will one day wash, dry and put clothes into a drawer

A prototype of a Laundroid laundry folding bot developed by Seven Dreamers Laboratories. — A prototype of a Laundroid laundry folding bot developed by Seven Dreamers Laboratories.
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg

By

Yuji Nakamura and

Hiroyuki Nakagawa

December 1, 2016, 9:00 PM UTCUpdated onDecember 2, 2016, 2:27 AM UTC

Hate doing laundry? Shin Sakane has a solution.

The Japanese inventor received 6 billion yen ($53 million) from partners, including Panasonic Corp., last month to advance “the Laundroid” -- a robot Sakane is developing to not only wash and dry garments, but also sort, fold and neatly arrange them. The refrigerator-size device could eventually fill the roles of washing machine, dryer and clothes drawer in people’s homes.