MIT’s robot maids will do your chores for you
Too tired to make your own cup of coffee in the morning? Soon, you could outsource it to the help: robots.
New software out of MIT will teach robots to do your least favorite household chores — just like in “The Jetsons.”
Computer scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have unveiled “Virtual Home,” a system that demos the robotic “agents” performing such tasks as turning on the TV, using the toaster or placing a pot on the stove.
Robots, it turns out, require more detailed instructions than humans would. For example, instead of “Get me a glass of water, please,” you’d ask a robot to stand up, walk toward the cabinet, pick up a glass, close the cabinet, turn on the faucet, hold the cup under the stream of water and walk the full cup over to the thirsty human in question.
To that end, the research team collected verbal descriptions of a series of tasks, which were then translated into special simulation videos — which the robots, fascinatingly, were able to watch and learn from.
“This line of work could facilitate true robotic personal assistants in the future,” Qiao Wang, a research assistant in arts, media and engineering at Arizona State University, says in a press release.
Next, Wang’s team hopes to train the robots using regular videos instead of what scientists call “Sims-style simulations,” which would allow robots to learn tasks from YouTube videos.
But for now, we still have to make our own beds.