Researchers at the University of Utah have recently developed a probabilistic grasp planner that can explicitly model grasp types to plan high-quality precision and power grasps in real time. Their supervised learning approach, outlined in a paper pre-published on...
Robotics
An IKEA furniture assembly environment to train robots on complex manipulation tasks
In order to complete complex everyday tasks such as using equipment, cooking or building furniture, robots should be able to plan their actions and manipulate objects in their surroundings. So far, however, teaching robots to complete complicated tasks, such as those...
An interactive drone to assist humans in office environments
Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have recently developed an interactive drone designed to assist humans in indoor environments such offices or laboratories. In a paper prepublished on arXiv, the researchers presented the results achieved by...
Applying active inference body perception to a humanoid robot
A key challenge for robotics researchers is developing systems that can interact with humans and their surrounding environment in situations that involve varying degrees of uncertainty. In fact, while humans can continuously learn from their experiences and perceive...
An approach for motion planning on asteroid surfaces with irregular gravity fields
Asteroids are small, rocky bodies orbiting the sun that are too small to be called planets. There are millions of asteroids in the solar system, ranging in size, shape and composition. The exploration of asteroids could help to uncover fascinating information about...
This assistive robot is controlled via brain-computer interface
Researchers at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, in Italy, have recently developed a cutting-edge architecture that enables the operation of an assistive robot via a P300-based brain computer interface (BCI). This architecture, presented in a paper...
A neurorobotics approach for building robots with communication skills
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have recently proposed a neurorobotics approach that could aid the development of robots with advanced communication capabilities. Their approach, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, is based on...
A new robot for artistic grayscale painting
A team of researchers at St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University (ETU-LETI) and Ural Federal University (URFU) has recently created a new robotic setup for realistic grayscale painting. The project's lead developer, Dr. Artur Karimov, is a professional artist...
A global motion-planning approach based on local experiences
While humans can execute motions naturally and instantaneously, robots require advanced motion planning strategies in order to navigate their surroundings. Motion planning is thus a key area of robotics research, aimed at developing tools and techniques that allow...
A method for self-supervised robotic learning that entails setting feasible goals
Reinforcement learning (RL) has so far proved to be an effective technique for training artificial agents on individual tasks. However, when it comes to training multi-purpose robots, which should be able to complete a variety of tasks that require different skills,...