One of the problems with any useful laundry automation schemes I've seen thus far is that they tend to have some real-estate specific requirements (laundry chut

One of the problems with any useful laundry automation schemes I've seen thus far is that they tend to have some real-estate specific requirements (laundry chute, for example) and also tend to require that you own your own home, or at least rent an apartment with a washer/dryer inside, which is not feasible in San Francisco by any means. An awesome "laundry bot" would: - Retrieve items from a laundry bin - Scan the fabric to determine color and type for sorting (knowing to have a dry-clean bin, a woolens bin, a whites bin, a color cottons bin, etc) - Transport the dirty garments to the cleaning facility - Perform proper cleaning operations (washing, folding drying) - Return the laundered garment The act itself might be triggered by scales or pressure sensors in laundry bins. It just doesn't seem like it should be that hard. I'm surprised that industrious tinkerers haven't already automated the repetitive, thankless tasks in our lives that we tend to hate like laundry, vacuuming, window washing, (lawn maintenance for you suburbanites, etc.