洗衣的未来—智能机器人会完全取代人工吗？

FoldiMate, Inc.是一家总部位于加州的机器人初创公司，专注于改变人们叠衣服的方式。该公司的进一步增长要归功于其自身积极的筹款活动。去年，股权众筹让全球各地的粉丝和支持者——无论是否获得认证的投资者——都能以投资者和代表的身份参与到这家初创企业的未来中来。

FoldiMate, Inc., a California based robotics start-up focused on changing the way people fold laundry, owes its further growth to being active in fundraising themselves. Last year, equity crowdfunding enabled fans and supporters worldwide – both accredited and non-accredited investors – to participate in the start-up’s future by becoming an investor and ambassador.

公司发明的 FoldiMate机器人洗衣折叠机，该设备可以折叠从6岁到成人尺寸XXL的大多数类型的衬衫、裤子，以及标准尺寸的毛巾和枕头套。基金的投入是为了制造一个升级的，更小尺寸的样品，并进一步投入到实地测试。未来几轮的资金将用于向家庭和企业提供测试版样品，同时为大规模生产做准备。

The company’s invention – FoldiMate – is a robotic laundry folder that folds most types of shirts, blouses, or pants from age 6 to adult size XXL, as well as standard size towels and pillowcasesThe funds were intended to manufacture an upgraded, smaller dimensions, prototype and run further intensive field tests. Funds from future rounds will go towards shipping Beta units to homes and businesses while preparing for mass production.

FoldiMate创始人兼首席执行官盖尔•罗佐夫(Gal Rozov)表示：“FoldiMate在不到5分钟的时间里折叠了大约25件衣物，在最近的测试中，我们测试了人工与FoldiMate折叠的速度，我们发现折叠速度至少是人工的两倍。”这些数据表明，在多样“折叠活动”环境中，显著节省人工并使得销售机会有可能会随之增加。

Gal Rozov, founder and CEO stated:   “FoldiMate folds a laundry load of around 25 items in less than 5 minutes, and after recent tests where we tested humans folding alongside FoldiMate, we discovered that it folds at least twice as fast as a human”. These data indicate that significant payroll savings and increased sales opportunities for clothing merchandisers could follow when used in various ‘ folding-active’ environments.

英国按需洗衣初创公司Oxwash宣布投资160万欧元。本轮融资的投资者包括Truesight Ventures、比兹•斯通(Biz Stone, Twitter的联合创始人)、保罗•福斯特(Paul Forster, Indeed.com的创始人)、Founders Factory和其他未具名的天使投资者。

Oxwash, a UK-based laundry-on-demand startup has announced a €1,6 million investment. Backers in the funding round include Truesight Ventures, Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), Paul Forster (founder of Indeed.com), Founders Factory and other unnamed angel investors.

在此之前，Oxwash曾与34.5万欧元的种子前期融资合作，用于建造首个洗涤中心(该公司称其为“Lagoons”)，并测试其重新设计的洗涤过程。

Prior to this, Oxwash was working with a €345.000 pre-seed round — which it used to fund building its first washing hubs (which it calls “Lagoons”) and to test its reengineered washing process.

Oxwash公司由前NASA工程师凯尔·格兰特(Kyle Grant)于2018年创立，利用臭氧生成技术为个人和企业(如酒店、bnbs航空公司、大学和办公室)提供清洁洗衣卫生服务。最近，他们一直在为客户提供冠状病毒(COVID-19)消毒，将臭氧消毒与热消毒和化学消毒相结合，清洗物品至药用级别，并确保客户物品中的细菌、真菌和病毒制剂完全消灭。这家初创公司还使用无接触式收集装置，使用配有便携式臭氧发生器的电动货运自行车对物品进行消毒，使用可溶解的洗衣袋来消除通过织物和衣物传播的冠状病毒。

Oxwash, founded in 2018 by former NASA engineer Kyle Grant, uses ozone generation technology and delivery to clean laundry hygienically for both individuals and businesses (like hotels, air bnbs, colleges and offices). Most recently, they have been providing coronavirus (COVID-19) disinfection for customers, by combining ozone disinfection with thermal and chemical processes to wash to pharmaceutical-grade, and to ensure the full eradication of bacterial, fungal, and viral agents in customers’ items. The startup also uses no-contact pickups, the use of electric-cargo bikes adapted with portable ozone generators to sterilize items, dissolvable laundry bags to eliminate coronavirus transmission through fabric and clothing.

素材来源：CINET