May 11, 2016
This Robot’s Teaching Itself to Twirl a Stick
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: information science, robotics/AI
If you’ve ever tried to learn how to spin a pencil in your hand, you’ll know it takes some concerted effort—but it’s even harder for a robot. Now, though, researchers have finally built a ‘bot that can learn to do it.
The reason that tasks like spinning a stick are hard is that a lot happens in a very short time. As the stick moves, the forces exerted by the hand can easily send it flying out of control if they’re not perfectly co-ordinated. Sensing where the stick is and varying the hand’s motion is an awful lot for even the smartest algorithms to handle based on a list of rules.
Continue reading “This Robot’s Teaching Itself to Twirl a Stick” »