Neither Laundroid, which was invented in Japan, nor FoldiMate, being developed in Israel by an American company, can express existential ennui as Rosey the Jetsons’ robot did, or interface with your Roomba or your Wi-Fi-enabled Mr. Coffee to create a seamless automated washing, vacuuming and caffeinating experience. But they do seem to be a crucial advance for in-home automation, where a thinking machine lends a genuinely useful metallic hand with the chores.

“There are a few pop culture holy grails out there, the maid robot being one of them,” said Daniel H. Wilson, a researcher in robotics and an author whose books include “Where’s My Jetpack?” and the novel “Robopocalypse.”

Laundroid has an insert box and four smaller drawers. Dump in up to 30 items of clean clothing and it goes to work.

“The robot arm picks up the clothes one by one and then artificial intelligence recognizes if this is a T-shirt or pants or pajamas,” Shin Sakane, Laundroid’s inventor, said in a Skype interview from Japan.

The biggest technical challenge for both Laundroid and FoldiMate is for the machine to know what it is holding. Because clothes are shapeless in a pile, and the robot arm will grab each item sometimes by the edge, sometimes by a midpoint, “there will be no times that a garment will be picked up in the same shape,” Guy Hayazaki, a Laundroid spokesman, said.

The Laundroids will work as a team. The concept is that, using a Wi-Fi connection, the networked robot brain will connect to a server that is constantly learning best folding methods for each type of clothing by downloading data from all the other Laundroids. This hive mind promises to be able to differentiate between T-shirts, overalls and rompers, fold each according to its needs and sort them into separate piles for members of the household.