Latest / The Robotics Podcast with Fexingo: Autonomous Systems, Industrial Robots, and Hardware
Why Robot Arms Still Cant Handle a Wet Towel
Lucas and Luna explore the surprisingly difficult problem of robotic manipulation of wet deformable objects, focusing on a 2025 study from MIT CSAIL that tested 12 industrial robot arms on wringing and folding a soaked hand towel. They discuss the physics of fluid redistribution, the limitations of current vision systems, and why a towel with 40% water content by weight makes even the most advanced grippers fail. The episode includes a practical look at how researchers are now training simulators with fluid dynamics to address this, with a concrete example from a lab at Carnegie Mellon…
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