Some time ago, I watched a television program on “up and coming ideas” in consumer goods, one of which was the ultrasonic washing machine. The machine cleaned clothes using a concept similar to ultrasonic cleaners used in jewelry stores and technical laboratories: immerse the garment in a low-concentration detergent solution and excite the water via ultrasonic transducers to “agitate” the soil from the fabric.
The motivation for this is the potential for such systems to take up less space, use less detergent and water, and consume less energy than a traditional washer. This design actually goes one step further, by incorporating the function of the dryer into the same machine.
This is, like the electrostatic precipitators used for home air cleaning, a technology with great potential for use in space stations and colonies.