Robots are already capable of doing many chores for us, including cooking and cleaning. The Idiap Research Institute has managed to come with an innovative technique to teach robots how to make the traditional Swiss raclette. They learned how get the job done via demonstration.
These robots learn new skills by using position and force information. As Sylvain Calinon, head of Idiap’s Robot learning & interaction group, explains:
Thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms, the robotic arm can generate movements that can adapt to new situations. In this specific case, the cheese can be in slightly different positions and orientations, and there can be more or less cheese left in the oven. This ability to adapt is the key to allow efficient human-robot collaboration. The cheese Master shows each time a slightly different way to scrape the raclette cheese onto the plate. The underlying learning algorithms allows the robot to integrate these nuances to recreate a meaningful gesture in a new situation.
[HT]
