The main premise behind the Princeton Online Laundry Engine (P.O.L.E.) is that digital laundry machines should be able to self-report their status by sending digital messages to a dedicated laundry server. This server in turn should make the necessary status changes to the database that contains all of the relevant information about the machines. The status quo at Princeton does not allow for actual tracking of laundry status just yet, but a simple upgrade to digital machines, along with the necessary networking provisions, would allow for a seamless transition into technical laundry services.
A running version of the program can be found here: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~rliljest/laundry.php. For the manual administrative interface, go here: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~rliljest/simulation.php.
In case something goes wrong, you can contact RJ at rliljest@princeton.edu