A droid to do your laundry, for a price

Hate doing laundry? Shinichi Sakane has a solution.

The Japanese inventor has received 6 billion yen ($53 million) from partners, including Panasonic Corp, to advance "the Laundroid" - a robot Sakane is developing to not only wash and dry garments, but also to sort, fold and neatly arrange them.

The refrigerator-size device could eventually fill the roles of washing machine, dryer and clothes drawer in people's homes.