Latest / The Robotics Podcast with Fexingo: Autonomous Systems, Industrial Robots, and Hardware
Why Robot Arms Can't Fold a Fitted Sheet
You can program a robot to assemble a car engine or perform surgery with sub-millimeter precision — but ask it to fold a fitted sheet and it falls apart. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the surprising geometry and sensing challenges behind one of the most deceptively difficult tasks for robotic manipulation. They break down why the sheet's non-rigid fabric, elastic corners, and infinite folding paths create a combinatorial explosion that stumps even the latest deep-learning models. Drawing on recent research from MIT's CSAIL on deformable-object manipulation and a 2025 paper…
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