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American company FoldiMate has unveiled a 3ft-tall robot that takes in crumpled shirts, tops and trousers and spews them out neatly folded and steamed.

The technology age has ensured we haven't washed our clothes by hands for decades, but it hasn't tackled manual folding - until now.

The machine, expected to cost between £490 and £600, has a row of trays which pieces of clothing can be clipped onto.

Once pulled inside the FoldiMate senses the type of garment and robot arms fold it into place.

It also serves as a form of iron, de-wrinkling items by steaming them when they exit the machine.

The company says it takes around 10 seconds to fold each item and can hold between 15 and 20 pieces of clothing at a time.

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At the end of the process, they are released from the machine in a neat pile.

Some pieces of clothing can’t be folded with the machine, including underwear and large items such as linen.

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Although the concept is simple, Foldimate has been developing the machine with a team of experienced roboticists for years.

A commercial version of FoldiMate has existed since 2014, but pre-ordering the household version is only set to begin next year. More than 11,000 people have already registered on the company’s website.

It is not the first laundry-folding device however, with a group of Japanese companies releasing “The Laundroid” in October last year.