Study on Handling Clothes (Task Planning of Deformation for Unfolding Laundry)

Abstract

A study of a housekeeping robot designed to put away laundry was initiated in order to improve its ability to handle a flexible object. This paper proposes that there are conditions to unfolding clothes and to obtain grasping points that will generate an unfolded state in the clothing. There exists a dynamic phenomenon that clothes may unfold naturally under the influence of gravity if they are hung-up under clothes that have been grasped at two points on their outline. Humans skillfully deform clothing with this technique, and this is a useful method to unfold clothes for a robot. Initially, the conditions for determining the grasping points to enable the robot to unfold clothes were determined based on the observed phenomenon. Secondly, the task of deformation of clothes that includes an action for restoring torsion on a sleeve of a shirt is described. Lastly, the validity of the proposed method is demonstrated through experimental evidence.