ABB Robots and the Laundry Pile: From Mangle to Cobot

Commercial laundry went from hand-fed mangles in 1917 to robots that grip cloth. See how ABB YuMi, GoFa and OmniCore fit in, and why home folding still waits.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/15/20263 min read

ABB YuMi dual-arm collaborative robot working alongside a person in a lab
ABB YuMi dual-arm collaborative robot working alongside a person in a lab

In 1917 a commercial laundry ran on hands. Women stood at steam mangles all day, feeding sheets in flat and catching them at the other end, then folding by eye. It was hot work, and it was hard on the back. Every piece passed through somebody's fingers.

Women feeding steam mangles and folding sheets by hand at the Supply Laundry Company, Seattle, 1917
Women feeding steam mangles and folding sheets by hand at the Supply Laundry Company, Seattle, 1917

Above: women feeding steam mangles and folding sheets at the Supply Laundry Company, Seattle, 1917. Photo: Webster & Stevens / MOHAI, public domain.

Automation came, but it stopped halfway. Ironer-folders took over the pressing and the creasing, and a person still had to pull each crumpled item out of a cart and feed it in square. The first industrial robots, ASEA's IRB 6 in 1974 and later the ABB IRB 60 and IRB 2000, went to metal instead.

Early ASEA and ABB industrial robots on display: IRB 6, IRB 60, IRB 2000 and IRB 3000
Early ASEA and ABB industrial robots on display: IRB 6, IRB 60, IRB 2000 and IRB 3000

Above: early ASEA and ABB arms, including the IRB 6, IRB 60, IRB 2000 and IRB 3000. Photo: Dependability / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cloth is hard because it will not hold a shape. A towel looks different every time you drop it, and a vision system that finds a bolt in a bin loses the edge of a pillowcase in a heap. That has only recently cracked. The sewts VELUM system now feeds 500 to 600 textiles an hour at a Bavarian laundry.

Workers hand-feeding ironer-folder machines in a modern commercial laundry
Workers hand-feeding ironer-folder machines in a modern commercial laundry

Above: workers hand-feeding ironer-folders in a commercial laundry. Photo: Samuli Lintula with Turun Tekstiilihuolto Oy, CC BY 3.0.

ABB's lighter machines fit here. YuMi (IRB 14000) is a dual-arm collaborative robot with 0.5 kg per arm and 0.02 mm repeatability, built for two-handed work beside people. Researchers have already used YuMi to smooth and fold fabric. GoFa cobots take the heavier carts and stacks.

ABB YuMi IRB 14000 dual-arm collaborative robot handling small parts beside a human worker
ABB YuMi IRB 14000 dual-arm collaborative robot handling small parts beside a human worker

Above: ABB's YuMi (IRB 14000) dual-arm cobot at work on small parts. Photo: ABB.

The hard part was always perception. ABB's OmniCore controller was built to take vision, AI and sensor input directly, and its EyeMotion option lets a robot adjust its path in real time as it sees. That is what a pile of linen asks for, and OmniCore also runs robots faster on less energy.

Sorting and storage cages of clean linen in a commercial laundry in Dubai
Sorting and storage cages of clean linen in a commercial laundry in Dubai

Above: sorting and storage in a commercial laundry in Dubai. Photo: Laundrykhalas / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

At CES 2026, LG showed CLOiD folding laundry in a mock home. It took about thirty seconds per towel and left one in a heap. Folding at home is still years off. Commercial laundries, with their fixed lighting, known linen and high volume, will get these robots working first.

Below: ABB's OmniCore control platform, which takes vision, AI and sensor input directly. Photo: ABB.

Engineers working with an ABB OmniCore robot controller and robot cell
Engineers working with an ABB OmniCore robot controller and robot cell
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