Some people in my lab worked on laundry manipulation, and it's surprisingly hard. My personal guess is that it's the lack of touch sensors. You can fold socks w

Some people in my lab worked on laundry manipulation, and it's surprisingly hard. My personal guess is that it's the lack of touch sensors. You can fold socks with your eyes closed pretty quickly, but if you had to do it with visual clues alone (e.g. by using a pair of those Gopher tools http://www.amazon.com/Seen-Gopher-Pick-Retrieving-Tool/dp/B000UVOT7O http://www.amazon.com/Seen-Gopher-Pick-Retrieving-Tool/dp/B0... ) it would take you significantly longer.