Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Robot Bakes Cookies.. and that's just the tip of his talent iceberg!



Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duXFIKswTOM to read about how "Mechanical engineering student Mario Bollini shows off how the Willow Garage PR2 robot can be programmed to mix the ingredients and bake cookies at MIT's Computers Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). The robot uses a Microsoft Kinect game console to find the bowls in front of it, grab them, and then mix ingredients in a process that takes about two and a half hours. By finding out where it makes mistakes, Bollini and fellow researchers hope to improve the motion plan it sets out for the robot and learn how robots could be used for more complex tasks, such as manufacturing. This slideshow will show a sampling of robotics projects at CSAIL and other Massachusetts universities. Also see related story, "With Microsoft Kinect, MIT robots see in 3D."