A robot developed by researchers in Switzerland has been 'taught' how to grasp a variety of objects with complex shapes and trajectories
The team from technology research institute EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) says their research has potential application in space, developing technologies for the recovery and disposal of space debris orbiting the Earth.
Originally designed by robotics manufacturers Simlab, the KUKA arm, around 1.5 metres in length, has seven joints and a sophisticated hand with four fingers.
It was originally designed for use in machine assembly factories but was programmed at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory at EPFL (LASA) to test robotic solutions for capturing moving objects.
With its palm open the robot is completely motionless, yet within a split second the arm can twist to catch a variety of flying objects thrown in its direction, such as a tennis racket, ball, and a partially filled water bottle.
Researcher Seungsu Kim says the research involved three distinct phases.
"First thing is to predict the whole trajectory. Second thing is finding best catching posture. And third thing is generating arm motion," said Kim.
The researchers were inspired by the way humans learn by imitation and trial and error. Rather than giving specific directions to the robot, this technique called Programming by Demonstration, involves showing examples of possible trajectories to the robot. The arm was then guided manually to the projected target repeatedly.
The project was funded by European Union research commission projects AMARSI and First-MM. It was developed in conjunction with the Clean-mE project undertaken by the Swiss Space Center at EPFL, which aims to develop technologies for the recovery and disposal of space debris orbiting around Earth. Fitted on a satellite, the arm would be given the task of catching flying debris.
According to Billard, "Assume now that the robot is mounted on a satellite and it's tracking the debris and as it's observing this junk rotating then it make inference as to what will be the next translation of velocity, so where this debris will be moving next and adapt its orientation to put the position of its arm so it can grab it and bring it back down to Earth."
The research was published on May 12 by IEEE Transactions on Robotics, the leading robotic science journal.
Source: Reuters