towel folding doesn't seem like a step towards automating clothing, any more than building a tall ladder is a step towards ladders tall enough to reach the moon. Anyway https://ruthtillman.com/post/all-clothing-is-handmade/
Getting computer vision and physics models to correctly handle fabric is the hard part of automating what's left in textiles.
Everything else is ultimately just inclined planes and a power rod pulling on levers, which is the stuff that was solved with the Jacquard machine and a whole industry of competing models of sewing machine before we even had electricity let alone electric servos.
