Sockrates

Introduction

Our original end goal for this project was to reliably fold socks and sort them into two different colors. We hope that we can extend our project in the future to fold different articles of clothing and expand the range of colors to sort into. We will discuss our project more below!

(Alan) Sawyer Robot Setup

Technical Problem

There are a couple of problems that we need to solve to make our solution work. First, we must be able to differentiate between colors. Second, we must be able to produce a clean fold specified by certain joint angles. Third, we must be able to detect the correct bin (stationed at any arbitrary location within reach of Sawyer) for which to place our newly folded socks into. These require us to implement tactics we have used in class to manipulate Sawyer: forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, and computer vision.

Application

This is an interesting project because it has several real-world applications and tests Sawyer in various manners, applying and aggregating topics we have learned in class. Some of the most common applications of robotics include simplifying trivial human tasks. Having a robot that can efficiently fold and sort socks (and eventually all types of clothing) can be a super helpful asset.

Our project can be easily extended to fold different items and sort by more colors as well. For now, our project folds socks, but it can also be adapted to fold pants, shirts, and other clothing items. While this is helpful in automating a somewhat tedious process, it can also be helpful for those with disabilities who may not have the ability to fold clothes. Thus, our project is helpful for all, whether it is for those who live busy lives and would like to automate parts of their lives, or for those who are not able to perform these folding tasks.