I was browsing through some articles on cnet.com and I found a very interesting one titled " Korean Housemaid Robot does Laundry". According to the article, The South Koreans have developed a robot that they call "Mahru-Z" and this robot can do laundry. Mahru-Z is 4 feet tall, weighs 120 pounds, has arms, legs, a rotating head, and can see objects in three dimensions. The engineers who designed the robot say that it is capable of picking up a dirty shirt with its hands, throwing it in the washer, and pushing the correct buttons of the washing machine with its six fingers. Sounds like the perfect gift for a college student.
And if that wasn't enough , Mahru-Z also has a maid robot named Mahru-M that can assist in doing the laundry. Mahru-M, however, is an earlier version and moves on wheels instead of legs. Theses wheels can serve as an advantage though since it results in increased mobility. Mahru-M can deliver clean clothes to the owner while Mahru- Z does the laundry. The designers of Mahru-Z say that it is, for now, the most advanced robot in terms of mimicking human movement.
It seems that we are getting closer and closer to the point when robots can perform almost all of our daily tasks. Albeit, none of these robots are practical for home use but they will eventually get there and that can be scary to think about.
If you want to check out the article, here's the link:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10438089-1.html?tag=mncol;title
