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Carnegie Mellon develops robots that ‘learn household tasks by watching humans’

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By Aaron Aupperlee

Novel method developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers enables robots to ‘learn in the wild’

The robot watched as Shikhar Bahl opened the refrigerator door. It recorded his movements, the swing of the door, the location of the fridge and more, analyzing this data and readying itself to mimic what Bahl had done.

It failed at first, missing the handle completely at times, grabbing it in the wrong spot or pulling it incorrectly. But after a few hours of practice, the robot succeeded and opened the door.

“Imitation is a great way to learn,” says Bahl, a PhD student at the Robotics Institute (RI) in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science. “Having robots actually learn from directly watching humans remains an unsolved problem in the field, but this work takes a significant step in enabling that ability.” [Read more…] about Carnegie Mellon develops robots that ‘learn household tasks by watching humans’

Columbia University engineers build robot that ‘learns to imagine itself’

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Columbia Engineers build a robot that learns to understand itself, rather than the world around it

As every athletic or fashion-conscious person knows, our body image is not always accurate or realistic, but it’s an important piece of information that determines how we function in the world. 

When you get dressed or play ball, your brain is constantly planning ahead so that you can move your body without bumping, tripping, or falling over.

We humans acquire our body-model as infants, and robots are following suit. A Columbia Engineering team has created a robot that – for the first time – is able to learn a model of its entire body from scratch, without any human assistance. (See video below.) [Read more…] about Columbia University engineers build robot that ‘learns to imagine itself’

Keep Yourself Safe While Cycling With These Useful Tips

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A couple of decades ago, you could argue that bicycle accidents weren’t a thing. But fast-forwarding to 2022, an increasing number of people are biking to work. And while there are many reasons for this uptick in bicycle fatalities, one of the most common is dooring. [Read more…] about Keep Yourself Safe While Cycling With These Useful Tips

How the MIT mini cheetah learns to run

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By Rachel Gordon, MIT CSAIL

CSAIL scientists came up with a learning pipeline for the four-legged robot that learns to run entirely by trial and error in simulation (see video below)

It’s been roughly 23 years since one of the first robotic animals trotted on the scene, defying classical notions of our cuddly four-legged friends.

Since then, a barrage of the walking, dancing, and door-opening machines have commanded their presence, a sleek mixture of batteries, sensors, metal, and motors. [Read more…] about How the MIT mini cheetah learns to run

Wikswo and VIIBRE team to build third-generation ‘self-driving lab’ with $1 million from National Science Foundation

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John Wikswo, founder and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education and Gordon A. Cain University Professor, is the principal investigator of a $1 million award from the National Science Foundation.

The object is to build a pathbreaking “robot scientist” – a fully automated microfluidic system for parallel, independent, long-duration, machine-guided experiments.

The target organisms are the single-cell eukaryotic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as brewer’s and baker’s yeast, the bacterium Escherichia coli and other microbes used in commercial biotechnologies, and the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells used to produce antibody-based drugs and vaccines. [Read more…] about Wikswo and VIIBRE team to build third-generation ‘self-driving lab’ with $1 million from National Science Foundation

New sensor that mimics automatic human reaction to heat could pave the way for ‘soft robots of the future’

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A new robotic sensor that mimics the automatic human reaction to heat is being hailed as a world first.

The device has been built by a team of experts from Liverpool Hope University, who say it’s the first sensor that can trigger this “sensory impulse” that the robotics community has yet seen.

The findings have been published in IEEE Xplore last December 15, 2021 as an early-access article and published this month in the IEEE Sensors Journal. [Read more…] about New sensor that mimics automatic human reaction to heat could pave the way for ‘soft robots of the future’

UAE scientists figure out way to get swarm robots to split up tasks efficiently

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Researchers at the Technology Innovation Institute in the UAE are developing a new paradigm for teaching robot swarms how to allocate themselves to tasks efficiently. 

The ideas – published in the paper, Group-Size Regulation in Self-organized Aggregation in Robot Swarms – could spark interest in better ways of controlling lots of simple robots to do more complicated tasks independently, with little or no outside communication.

Much prior work has been done to organizing swarms of drones to perform impressive tasks, such as a coordinated light show. But these approaches often relied on centralized coordination, expensive equipment in each drone, or both. [Read more…] about UAE scientists figure out way to get swarm robots to split up tasks efficiently

Purdue scientists build a chip that makes connections like a human brain

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An electronic chip that can be reprogrammed on demand may enable artificial intelligence to learn more continuously like the human brain does, researchers have discovered.

When the human brain learns something new, it adapts. But when artificial intelligence learns something new, it tends to forget information it already learned.

As companies use more and more data to improve how AI recognizes images, learns languages and carries out other complex tasks, a paper published in Science this week shows a way that computer chips could dynamically rewire themselves to take in new data like the brain does, helping AI to keep learning over time. [Read more…] about Purdue scientists build a chip that makes connections like a human brain

Mercedes partners with ProLogium to develop next-generation solid-state battery cells for electric vehicles

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Mercedes-Benz and ProLogium, a developer of solid-state batteries, have signed a technology cooperation agreement to develop next-generation battery cells.

The first Mercedes-Benz test vehicles equipped with solid-state batteries co-developed with ProLogium are expected to be introduced in the coming years.

The companies also agreed on milestones that would enable integration of the solid-state battery technology into a range of passenger vehicles in the second half of the decade. [Read more…] about Mercedes partners with ProLogium to develop next-generation solid-state battery cells for electric vehicles

New soft robot morphs from a ground to air vehicle using liquid metal

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Imagine a small autonomous vehicle that could drive over land, stop, and flatten itself into a quadcopter. The rotors start spinning, and the vehicle flies away.

Looking at it more closely, what do you think you would see? What mechanisms have caused it to morph from a land vehicle into a flying quadcopter? You might imagine gears and belts, perhaps a series of tiny servo motors that pulled all its pieces into place.

If this mechanism was designed by a team at Virginia Tech led by Michael Bartlett, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, you would see a new approach for shape changing at the material level. [Read more…] about New soft robot morphs from a ground to air vehicle using liquid metal