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$6,500 for OpenArm v2. Incredibly smooth movement, 4kg of load per arm. Its unclear how far the level of autonomous control has come so far. The video shows mos

$6,500 for OpenArm v2. Incredibly smooth movement, 4kg of load per arm. Its unclear how far the level of autonomous control has come so far. The video shows mostly tele-operated operation. I have to agree with other comments here that folding laundry is the killer app.

moffkalast 19d ago
One would expect it to at least have calibration and inverse kinematics solved. That's still a massive pain point for the SO-ARM101 despite it being so common now, since there's no base_link to gripper calibration nor sag compensation and every center offset stacks. Lerobot banked on having full DL control of each joint so they wouldn't have to do that properly, but now VLAs just use inverse kinematics as a crutch and predict gripper offsets, so we're back to square one.
- drapado 19d ago
  Hi! do you have any references for VLAs using inverse kinematics? I'm very curious and can't find much
  - moffkalast 19d ago
    I'm not super up to date on new releases, the one I'm most familiar with is X-VLA which predicts gripper poses and relative movement deltas for kinematics to move to instead of joints, and trains on forward kinematic gripper poses. I think Intern and Octo have the same approach.
altruios 18d ago
Respectfully, that's the corporate-washed killer app. Intimacy between people in a long distance relationship: that's the killer app.
- jamilton 18d ago
  That's a niche inside a niche. It's a step up from existing solutions, but not an enormous one.
- gravitronic 18d ago
  The term for that is teledildonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics
  - jjkaczor 18d ago
    ... and the "at least historic" lack of "app/service" security related to this... Uh, the main site appears to be down (and most wouldn't click on the link, given it's name) - but you can read about a project here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Haines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Haines
- XorNot 18d ago
  No it's definitely folding laundry. My intimacy with my partner in a short difference marriage would improved it we could eliminate folding washing from the weekly chores.
  - mrguyorama 18d ago
    So, uh, have you tried just not folding laundry? I think it's funny how often "Folding Laundry" is brought up as the critical use case as if that's a labor function that needs to be done in the first place! Some of us already live in the Utopia of not folding laundry! I'm not advocating, but pointing out how silly it is that the supposed linchpin of the end of human labor is a completely voluntary and unnecessary task. I get why it can be a good example, because it's common and "hard" in that computery way that seems like it shouldn't be that hard, and that it's supposed to represent all the other hard problems of housework. But we know what the household robot industry considers "solved" to look like, and I'm not that satisfied with roombas, and knowing that, is $6000 for something that could fold your laundry really that much better a proposition than just being wrinkly sometimes? Downey produces a product that you spray on a clothing item and stretch it and it stops being wrinkly. Totally unnecessary, but way cheaper than $6000.
    - 8note 18d ago
      folding laundry is an exemplary case of a lot of household work which involves carefully collecting items through the house, putting them into a machine to run a cleaning cycle, then putting them away in their right location. folding is a hard middle step in the laundry process, but the job is end to end
    - fhn 18d ago
      how dare you suggest actually doing the work. outrageous!
  - failbuffer 18d ago
    Have you tried getting a folding board or folding table? Helps accelerate the process and produces neater results. I love mine!
- 8note 18d ago
  probably not quite. intimacy over onlyfans with a guy in india pretending to be the woman is the proper killer app.
- fhn 18d ago
  take "people" out of that equation would be even better
CompoundEyes 18d ago
In the movie Idiocracy they have a dispenser with fresh clothes to put on covered in advertising — assuming free. I’m surprised that doesn’t exist and perhaps made of recycled plastic?
euroderf 18d ago
It's cleaning the dang bathroom.
sschueller 18d ago
I don't understand why everyone wants to build a laundry folding robot that is humanoid when we generally build purpose built machines which can do a much better and quicker job. I want to toss dirty laundry into a hopper and have it come out clean and folded at the other end. There is no reason to use my existing washer and dryer that are designed for human use.
- deleted 18d ago
  [deleted]
- AngryData 18d ago
  Yeah but nobody has had any successful ideas for sorting and folding random fabric and clothes in any other way. Its not that people wouldn't mind a non-humanoid laundry robot/device, the problem is nobody has found any other solution to solve the problem, human hands and minds and methods are the only currently known solution.
- bellowsgulch 17d ago
  Because we're already designing machines with reinforcement learning. It would be two steps forward and one step back to design robots who can walk but can't fold laundry. Why would anyone want a third machine next to their washer and dryer if you're already going to have a household robot? God, not to mention how home are designed around the two-machine space.

moffkalast 19d ago

One would expect it to at least have calibration and inverse kinematics solved. That's still a massive pain point for the SO-ARM101 despite it being so common now, since there's no base_link to gripper calibration nor sag compensation and every center offset stacks. Lerobot banked on having full DL control of each joint so they wouldn't have to do that properly, but now VLAs just use inverse kinematics as a crutch and predict gripper offsets, so we're back to square one.

drapado 19d ago
Hi! do you have any references for VLAs using inverse kinematics? I'm very curious and can't find much
- moffkalast 19d ago
  I'm not super up to date on new releases, the one I'm most familiar with is X-VLA which predicts gripper poses and relative movement deltas for kinematics to move to instead of joints, and trains on forward kinematic gripper poses. I think Intern and Octo have the same approach.

altruios 18d ago

Respectfully, that's the corporate-washed killer app. Intimacy between people in a long distance relationship: that's the killer app.

jamilton 18d ago
That's a niche inside a niche. It's a step up from existing solutions, but not an enormous one.
gravitronic 18d ago
The term for that is teledildonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics
- jjkaczor 18d ago
  ... and the "at least historic" lack of "app/service" security related to this... Uh, the main site appears to be down (and most wouldn't click on the link, given it's name) - but you can read about a project here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Haines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Haines
XorNot 18d ago
No it's definitely folding laundry. My intimacy with my partner in a short difference marriage would improved it we could eliminate folding washing from the weekly chores.
- mrguyorama 18d ago
  So, uh, have you tried just not folding laundry? I think it's funny how often "Folding Laundry" is brought up as the critical use case as if that's a labor function that needs to be done in the first place! Some of us already live in the Utopia of not folding laundry! I'm not advocating, but pointing out how silly it is that the supposed linchpin of the end of human labor is a completely voluntary and unnecessary task. I get why it can be a good example, because it's common and "hard" in that computery way that seems like it shouldn't be that hard, and that it's supposed to represent all the other hard problems of housework. But we know what the household robot industry considers "solved" to look like, and I'm not that satisfied with roombas, and knowing that, is $6000 for something that could fold your laundry really that much better a proposition than just being wrinkly sometimes? Downey produces a product that you spray on a clothing item and stretch it and it stops being wrinkly. Totally unnecessary, but way cheaper than $6000.
  - 8note 18d ago
    folding laundry is an exemplary case of a lot of household work which involves carefully collecting items through the house, putting them into a machine to run a cleaning cycle, then putting them away in their right location. folding is a hard middle step in the laundry process, but the job is end to end
  - fhn 18d ago
    how dare you suggest actually doing the work. outrageous!
- failbuffer 18d ago
  Have you tried getting a folding board or folding table? Helps accelerate the process and produces neater results. I love mine!
8note 18d ago
probably not quite. intimacy over onlyfans with a guy in india pretending to be the woman is the proper killer app.
fhn 18d ago
take "people" out of that equation would be even better

CompoundEyes 18d ago

In the movie Idiocracy they have a dispenser with fresh clothes to put on covered in advertising — assuming free. I’m surprised that doesn’t exist and perhaps made of recycled plastic?

euroderf 18d ago

It's cleaning the dang bathroom.

sschueller 18d ago

I don't understand why everyone wants to build a laundry folding robot that is humanoid when we generally build purpose built machines which can do a much better and quicker job. I want to toss dirty laundry into a hopper and have it come out clean and folded at the other end. There is no reason to use my existing washer and dryer that are designed for human use.

deleted 18d ago
[deleted]
AngryData 18d ago
Yeah but nobody has had any successful ideas for sorting and folding random fabric and clothes in any other way. Its not that people wouldn't mind a non-humanoid laundry robot/device, the problem is nobody has found any other solution to solve the problem, human hands and minds and methods are the only currently known solution.
bellowsgulch 17d ago
Because we're already designing machines with reinforcement learning. It would be two steps forward and one step back to design robots who can walk but can't fold laundry. Why would anyone want a third machine next to their washer and dryer if you're already going to have a household robot? God, not to mention how home are designed around the two-machine space.