PR2 is a Willow Garage robot that performs a valuable, and difficult, task for humans - folding the laundry. Professor Pieter Abbeel at UC Berkeley has PR2 started out on towels, which are somewhat easier than other items, but still it's a great start.
(PR2 folding laundry robot)
Science fiction fans may recall that this functionality was built into closets by Philip K. Dick in his 1965 novel The Zap Gun; see the entry for the handicloset.
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Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'