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Uniqlo robots pick up packaged T-shirts and put them in a box

120 points| mareko | 6 years ago |ft.com

84 comments

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[+] Animats|6 years ago|reply
The industrial laundry industry is almost there on this. Here's Chicago Dryer's line.[1] They can take a huge clump of compressed sheets from a dryer and separate them out singly on a conveyor. But humans still grab them by an edge and start them into a slot for the ironing, folding and stacking process.

One last step to automate...

[1] https://www.chidry.com/products/cascade-automatic-linen-sepa...

[+] tholman|6 years ago|reply
I can’t read the article at all, it’s a paid publication. Are people who are voting for this all subscribers?
[+] _-___________-_|6 years ago|reply
I believe it's just a signup-wall, not a pay-wall, so it's quite possible all the upvoters have an account, but I'd still prefer that the link was to something that didn't have any kind of wall.
[+] AareyBaba|6 years ago|reply
The robots are standard pick and place robots using suction to pick packaged t-shirts and put them in a box. If you were expecting to see a robot picking up a t-shirt, folding it and putting it in a package you will be disappointed.
[+] Reason077|6 years ago|reply
I like Uniqlo, but one thing that has annoyed me about them is the environmentally unsound practice of packaging each individual item (T-Shirts, etc) in a thick plastic wrapper.

They don’t do this for all their lines, but it would be good if they could abandon such superfluous packaging altogether or at least switch to using sustainable, biodegradable materials.

[+] syntaxing|6 years ago|reply
I found their new cashier system even more impressive. The cashier literally has to put everything on top of this plate and everything gets scanned at once. I hear the Uniqlo in Japan has this self checkout system that has this plus automatic bagging.
[+] alkonaut|6 years ago|reply
So someone making $1 per day put the t-shirt in the bag in Bangladesh, but Uniqlo has a robot that can move those packaged shirts?
[+] ruler88|6 years ago|reply
well, these robots will be operating in highly competitive markets offering 2-3 day shipping so Bangladeshi packers will not be in those labor markets.

With raising minimal wage in the US. We are likely looking at $10/hr in various markets. These robots run 24/7 so that is 1024365 = $87k saved per year. Even with depreciation counted in, it sounds pretty economical to me.

[+] taneq|6 years ago|reply
And that's why it'll be a long while before we have fully autonomous clothing handling robots.
[+] sorokod|6 years ago|reply
More like 50 cents a day.
[+] api|6 years ago|reply
PSA: I would pay upwards of $5000 for a robot that can reliably fold and put away laundry. I mean in a real bedroom, not some contrived setting, and real clothes that are not pre-sorted.
[+] gambiting|6 years ago|reply
I can't fathom having enough disposable income to spend $5000 on such a thing. Good for you I guess.
[+] on_and_off|6 years ago|reply
Sounds about right.

When I was living in France, I had a house cleaner coming every other week.

(IIRC half of what you pay your house cleaner can be deduced from your taxes, making this service relatively cheap)

Their first task was always to iron my shirts ... a chore I was very happy to do not have to do anymore.

I don't mind at all washing them myself but ironing feels like it takes way too much time.

[+] cwperkins|6 years ago|reply
More people need to be aware that Uniqlo sources some of its cotton from Xinjiang where the Uyghur were/are detained.
[+] csomar|6 years ago|reply
Xinjiang or not it's China and most of the world are doing business with them today. Not that I'm happy with it but blacklisting products from China is not feasible today.
[+] GordonS|6 years ago|reply
Could you explain why you feel that is relevant?