Robots will soon become an integral part of our lives. Starting from work as basic as picking a object to prepare food in kitchen, these mechanical marvels will soon be able to execute all kind of tasks by watching YouTube videos.
Some researchers at Cornell University made an online game, called TellMeDave, through which volunteers can help train a robot to perform a task and associate different actions with commands given in everyday language.
Under a project called as Robowatch, Robots were made to watch instructional videos and derive a series of step-by-step instructions to perform a task. One doesn’t even have to turn on the DVD player; the robot can look up what it needs on YouTube.
By going through multiple videos of the same activity the robots can identify common steps, put them in order, and learn how to execute the work shown in the tutorials.
In future, these “personal robots” will perform everyday housework – cooking, washing dishes, doing the laundry, feeding the cat. It will also assist the elderly and people with disabilities.
Recently in London, former Skype co-founders have launched a new company, Starship Technologies, which is preparing to test their self-driving delivery robots in London. The as yet unnamed robots are small, safe, practical and free from CO2 emissions, according to the developers.
The robots can carry the equivalent of two bags of shopping and complete local deliveries in between five and 30 minutes from a designated hub or retail outlet.
