MIT develops a robot so skilled that it peels vegetables without problems
MIT researchers have developed a new robot that can easily perform certain types of kitchen tasks, such as gently peeling and cleaning vegetables.
In a recent video, the robot is seen peeling a pumpkin with one hand while holding it with the other. Using its finger, the robotic system can easily rotate fruits and vegetables and use the other hand to peel them. The system is obtained by combining the Franka robotic arm and the Allegro manipulation system. His presentation, as well as via video, took place on New Scientist
Here is the video that is the subject of the presentation, which shows a system that still needs to be perfected, but is interesting for imitating the movement of the hand, because the problem is not just peeling a pumpkin
The robot addresses dexterity manipulation problems
Recent studies have made significant progress in addressing problems of dexterity manipulation, particularly reorientation of objects with the hand.
However, there is little existing work that explores the potential use of developed dexterity manipulation controllers for downstream tasks.
In this new study, MIT researchers focused on constrained dexterous manipulation for peeling foods. Peeling food presents several constraints for the reorientation controller, such as the requirement that the hand securely hold the object after reorientation for peeling.
“We propose a simple system for learning a reorientation controller that facilitates the subsequent peeling task,” the researchers said.
Humans peel potatoes by grasping the potato with one hand and using the second hand to operate a potato peeler to remove the potato peel. After peeling a portion of the potato, it is rotated while held in the hand (i.e., hand manipulation) and peeled again. The twisting and peeling sequence continues until all of the potato skin is removed. All automatically, but this movement is complex for a robot.
The robotic system can reorient different vegetables
“In this work, we present a robotic system that can reorient different vegetables using an Allegro hand so that their peel can be peeled using another manipulator,” the researchers said.
The dexterous handling system uses an Allegro hand mounted on a Franka robotic arm to reorient foods to be peeled downstream. The other robotic arm Franka uses its gripper to grip a peeler for peeling.
The reorientation controller for the Allegro hand is learned through reinforcement learning, while peeling is performed via teleoperation.
The researchers demonstrated the process of reorienting and peeling a melon, a sweet potato and a pumpkin.
The reorientation controller presented in this study is a blind controller that relies solely on sensory information. of its receptors, a bit like a real hand would do. While it has demonstrated the ability to successfully reorient heavy objects and hold them securely in place, its performance could potentially be improved by incorporating visual and tactile feedback.
“These additional rotation steps are something very simple for humans, we don't even think about it,” Pulkit Agrawal, assistant professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), told New Scientist. “But for a robot, this becomes challenging.”
The system also has limitations, failures have been seen: small fruit is difficult to handle and can slip, just like the human hand, but this system, beyond peeling the fruit, allows you to learn a lot about advanced robotics.
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The article MIT develops a robot so good it can peel vegetables without problems comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-mit-sviluppa-un-robot-cosi-abile-da-sbucciare-la-verdura-senza-problemi/ on Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:09:20 +0000.