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Comment by prometheus1992 | Hacker News Reader

prometheus1992·

i'm not really sure if people are being sarcastic about laundry folding being the real application of this because I have never felt in my life that i want a robot folding my laundry. i actually love folding my laundry.

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It's a huge milestone for robotic capabilities more generally. This particular problem has been discussed a ton in robotics communities. It requires a gentle-but-firm grip and extreme dexterity across a wide range of shapes, sizes, weights, densities and material types.

If a somewhat affordable robot can fold some of your laundry in a reasonable amount of time, all of a sudden there are a lot more new and useful things it can do as well. It's a metric.

Plus there are also people who don't like folding laundry. Like me.

>>> If a somewhat affordable robot can fold some of your laundry in a reasonable amount of time, all of a sudden there are a lot more new and useful things it can do as well. It's a metric.

I see, is it like arc agi but for robots? wouldn't the companies just laundryfold-maxx their robots then?

My current opinion is that trying to 'maxx' in this area (as has been done with other benchmarks) would actually bring enough other use cases with it as a side effect that it would be worthwhile.

That would mean maximizing robotic dexterity, not just control, which means improved hardware. Roboticists would be ecstatic with a laundry-maxxed robot.

I don't like folding laundry, but that's why I just lay all my clothes out flat, which still negates the desire for a robot to do it.

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