There will be robots adapting to situations and people

In the fictional animated series ' The Jetsons ' family appears a maid robot named Rosie whirring with errands like cleaning, cooking, and washing dishes. The prospect of maid robots is likely to come true in just a few more decades.

At MIT, researchers are studying a new, intelligent human-like robot called Domo , which can capture objects and place them on shelves or counters.

Assistant Professor Aaron Edsinger at MIT conducted research Domo for three years, said Domo can help people who are old or paralyzed as simple as cup. In addition, it is hoped that it will also apply potential to fields such as agriculture, space tourism and production support.

Domo is portrayed as the next generation of robots designed earlier by MIT such as Kismet that interacts with humans, or Cog can learn how to manipulate unidentified objects. Domo combines all the elements of both robots.

According to Edsinger, a robot in the future can do some manual manipulation, including tasks that require interaction with people. Rodney Brooks, MIT's director of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, added that there are currently many robots working on production lines in factories, but they are only based on one original and cannot be learned. how to adapt to new circumstances like Domo.

Robots in factories automatically manipulate objects but they can only do the same thing in the same direction each time and if they want the robot to actually be useful, they need to manipulate the object. .

Live in the real world

Domo is a maid robot capable of sensing when humans touch, it has motors in the arms, hands and neck that can sense power and react.(Photo: Physorg.com)

Under Brooks' supervision, Edsinger's team has focused on creating robots that work in true human environments such as kitchens. Robots designed to help domestic workers will be able to ignore the clutter in most environments but only focus on the exact stimulus.

Specific robots are placed in a limited environment to control, if you put one into someone's house, that way will not be expanded like that, we all want robots to adapt to the world. not the world adapted to robots.

Domo is placed on a table in Edsigner's workplace to be able to ' see ' everything going on in front of it, when its big blue eyes glance across the room, the cameras will give information to 12 computers to analyze the data collected and decide what to focus on.

Domo's observation system is harmoniously combined with abrupt movement that allows it to focus on important stimuli within the human environment, such as identifying very important faces in the future. Social partners and people often move. When Domo determines the movement is similar to the face, it stops and stares at it. Edsinger also shows how Domo interacts with people to help accomplish useful tasks.

Edsinger said that when he caught Domo's gaze, they immediately greeted him with a sentence like 'Hey (this), Domo' or '"Shelf, Domo" , this is how to motivate him to find a shelf. . Domo looked around until he identified a nearby table that looked similar, it held out its left hand to touch the shelf in the same way that people groped in the darkness to open the lamp and to make sure it was Real shelves there.

Once Domo had identified the shelf, he brought his right hand toward Edsinger's hand, which was placing a bag of coffee beans there. Domo wiggles his hand for a moment to feel the object then moves the grain bag from his right hand to his left hand (closest to the shelf) and then touches it and places the bag there.

Robot Domo (Photo: LiveScience)

According to Edsinger, although it seems to be only slight movements, wiggling is seen as an important factor in the ability to place objects correctly on the robot's shelf. Domo is programmed to recognize the size of an object by focusing on the head of the object such as the bottle cap, when it moves back and forth on top of the object, it can identify how big the vase is and decide to move. It objects from one hand to the other to place on the shelf.

You can hold an object that has never been seen and Domo can detect the object and start controlling it.

Combined with people

However, the philosophical issue besides research is that humans and robots work together to accomplish a good task that no one can do on their own. If you take down the workload for robot manipulation, then a good synergistic relationship is important and more valuable than the effort to do it yourself. For Domo or any robot that can communicate safely with humans, the first thing is that it must have a feeling when people touch, Domo has the motive of the arms, hands and neck feeling. With force and reaction, if you grab it and push it, the robot will move in your way.

By placing the motives there, you can achieve physical balance to create elasticity throughout the body, which helps interact with people more safely. However, if you use too much force and move Domo's arm in the wrong direction, it will yell by saying 'ouch! And if robots are useful for housework, it's also important to have a human-like shape, which will help people feel more comfortable around them.

Serving robots like Domo will be very helpful for solutions to the upcoming health crisis due to the population boom period. By helping simple tasks such as taking a glass in a drawer are considered to make a big difference for the elderly and those who are paralyzed. The first research on Domo was funded by NASA and now it is Toyota - this is a group that is interested in developing companion robots in the family. Domo's other application for production on the line. The idea that smart robots can work with people to be more productive and save the operations that must be transferred to foreign countries.

Even though the prospect of people being free from robots instead of manual labor is still in the field of science fiction. But Brooks foresees that there will be dedicated robots in the future with many different functions to do housework, but he certainly won't have one as Rosie can do all that can only be possible. is a group of robots with many different functions.

Anh Phuong - Department of Science and Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)