[morcheeba]

I currently have a robot washing my clothes, another robot washing my dishes, a third robot vacuuming my floors. Cybernetic systems adjust the temperature in my house and water my lawn. I even have a little robot I keep in the freezer to make ice cubes while I sleep.

So, two answers - 1. folding laundry is a difficult technical challenge. 2. when we get a robot to do that task, we won't call it a robot.

[skinnymuch]

If it has an arm sort of thing doing it, we very well may. If your drying machine had an arm putting clothing up on pins in your backyard vs being a box you dump clothing into, we’d likely call it a robot.

Some people do refer to automatic vacuums and other things that move automatically robots too.

[Twixes]

My quick test for a robot would be: does it have at least one appendage-like part performing a task? A washing machine has nothing like that, but a Kuka robot practically is a programmable arm, and Boston Dynamics robots have legs.