There are times when people feel like owning robots which could help with the usual household chores. That could sound like a far-fetched idea but here is one robot developed by doctoral student Jeremy Maitin-Shepard and Assistant Professor Pieter Abbeel [Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences] which can fold towels of different size and colors with great perfection.The robot has been built by the robotics company Willow Garage.

Robots are generally made to handle objects with a given shape or a rigid shape. The problem arises when they have to face a variety of shapes in case of a deforming 3-dimensional object, as in a cloth. The video explains how this Towel Folding Robot takes care of it all.

[source : berkeley.edu]