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:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

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