PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Video: Knife-wielding robot trains for grocery checkout job using new coactive learning technique

2013-11-05
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Syl Kacapyr
vpk6@cornell.edu
607-255-7701
Cornell University
Video: Knife-wielding robot trains for grocery checkout job using new coactive learning technique ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University engineers have taught a robot to work in a mock-supermarket checkout line, modifying a Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics in Boston to "coactively learn" from humans and make adjustments while an action is in progress.

"We give the robot a lot of flexibility in learning," said Ashutosh Saxena, assistant professor of computer science. "The robot can learn from corrective human feedback in order to plan its actions that are suitable to the environment and the objects present."

Video: http://youtu.be/uLktpkd7ojA

Early version of paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.6294

Saxena's research team will report their work at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Lake Tahoe, Calif., Dec. 5-8.

Modern industrial robots, like those on automobile assembly lines, have no brains, just memory. An operator programs the robot to move through the desired action; the robot can then repeat the exact same action every time an object goes by.

But off the assembly line, things get complicated: A personal robot working in a home has to handle tomatoes more gently than canned goods. If it needs to pick up and use a sharp kitchen knife, it should be smart enough to keep the blade away from humans.

The Baxter's arms have two elbows and a rotating wrist, so it's not always obvious to a human operator how best to move the arms to accomplish a particular task. So Saxena and graduate student Ashesh Jain drew on previous work, adding programming that lets the robot plan its own motions. It displays three possible trajectories on a touch screen where the operator can select the one that looks best.

Then humans can give corrective feedback. As the robot executes its movements, the operator can intervene, manually guiding the arms to fine-tune the trajectory. The robot has what the researchers call a "zero-G" mode, where the robot's arms hold their position against gravity but allow the operator to move them. The first correction may not be the best one, but it may be slightly better. The learning algorithm the researchers provided allows the robot to learn incrementally, refining its trajectory a little more each time the human operator makes adjustments or selects a trajectory on the touch screen. Even with weak but incrementally correct feedback from the user, the robot arrives at an optimal movement.

The robot learns to associate a particular trajectory with each type of object. A quick flip over might be the fastest way to move a cereal box, but that wouldn't work with a carton of eggs. Also, since eggs are fragile, the robot is taught that they shouldn't be lifted far above the counter. Likewise, the robot learns that sharp objects shouldn't be moved in a wide swing; they are held in close, away from people.

In tests with users who were not part of the research team, most users were able to train the robot successfully on a particular task with just five corrective feedbacks. The robots also were able to generalize what they learned, adjusting when the object, the environment or both were changed.

### The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, a Microsoft Faculty Fellowship and the National Science Foundation.

Contact Syl Kacapyr for information about Cornell's TV and radio studios.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

CTCA doctor presents studies at World Conference on Lung Cancer in Australia

2013-11-04
CTCA doctor presents studies at World Conference on Lung Cancer in Australia New clinical research on lung cancer being introduced to the medical community GOODYEAR, AZ – October 30th 2013 – Glen J. Weiss, MD, Director of Clinical Research, ...

ASU researchers discover new path to address genetic muscular diseases

2013-11-04
ASU researchers discover new path to address genetic muscular diseases Scientists find that key gene activates muscle growth TEMPE, Ariz. – For decades, scientists have searched for treatments for myopathies — genetic muscular diseases such as muscular dystrophy ...

California receives 'A' grade on Preterm Birth Report Card

2013-11-04
California receives 'A' grade on Preterm Birth Report Card Grades released in conjunction with World Prematurity Awareness Month

Studies show wide support for school-based health centers

2013-11-04
Studies show wide support for school-based health centers Parents and students surveyed responded positively AURORA, Colo. (Nov. 3, 2013) – Two new studies show that parents and students have highly positive views of school-based health centers (SBHCs) and ...

Mechanism by which metformin inhibits food intake

2013-11-04
Mechanism by which metformin inhibits food intake Metformin may reduce food intake and body weight, but the anorexigenic effects of metformin are still poorly understood. Under normal physiological conditions, Prof. Zheng Zhao and his team from the Key Laboratory ...

Omics future on personalized medicine, computer breeding and open platform

2013-11-04
Omics future on personalized medicine, computer breeding and open platform November 4, 2013, Shenzhen, China- As one of the most influential and fruitful annual conference in "Omics", the 8th International Conference on Genomics (ICG-8) was successfully concluded on November 1st with numerous ...

How to identify inflammatory demyelinating pseudotumor in the spinal cord?

2013-11-04
How to identify inflammatory demyelinating pseudotumor in the spinal cord? Inflammatory demyelinating pseudotumor usually occurs in the brain and rarely occurs in the spinal cord. On imaging, inflammatory demyelinating pseudotumor appears very similar to intramedullary ...

Voxel-based magnetic resonance morphometry in Parkinson's disease patients

2013-11-04
Voxel-based magnetic resonance morphometry in Parkinson's disease patients Non-motor symptoms, including abnormalities in cognition, mental behaviors, autonomic nerves and sensory perception, have the greatest effect on the quality of in Parkinson's disease patient ...

Life, but not as we know it

2013-11-04
Life, but not as we know it A rudimentary form of life that is found in some of the harshest environments on earth is able to sidestep normal replication processes and reproduce by the back door, researchers at The University of Nottingham have found. The ...

Antidepressant drug induces a juvenile-like state in neurons of the prefrontal cortex

2013-11-04
Antidepressant drug induces a juvenile-like state in neurons of the prefrontal cortex For long, brain development and maturation has been thought to be a one-way process, in which plasticity diminishes with age. The possibility that the adult brain ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

Mission accomplished for the “T2T” Hong Kong Bauhinia Genome Project

Study identifies how malaria can lead to childhood cancer

An earth-abundant mineral for sustainable spintronics

[Press-News.org] Video: Knife-wielding robot trains for grocery checkout job using new coactive learning technique