AI gives robot a push to identify and remember objects

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Artificial intelligence is being employed by UT Dallas computer scientists to help robots better identify and remember objects.

UT Dallas researchers in the Intelligent Robotics and Vision Lab developed a new approach to train Ramp, a Fetch Robotics mobile manipulator robot, to recognise objects through repeated interactions
UT Dallas researchers in the Intelligent Robotics and Vision Lab developed a new approach to train Ramp, a Fetch Robotics mobile manipulator robot, to recognise objects through repeated interactions - University of Texas at Dallas

The new system allows the robot to push objects multiple times until a sequence of images are collected, which enables the system to segment all the objects in the sequence until the robot recognises the objects. According to UT Dallas, previous approaches have relied on a single push or grasp by the robot to ‘learn’ the object.

The team presented its research paper at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference July 10-14 in Daegu, South Korea.

“If you ask a robot to pick up the mug or bring you a bottle of water, the robot needs to recognise those objects,” said Dr Yu Xiang, senior author of the paper and assistant professor of computer science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

The UTD researchers’ technology is designed to help robots detect a variety of objects and to generalise similar versions of common items, such as water bottles that come in different shapes and sizes.

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