Scientists sons of a robot arm that can catch things in the blink of an eye

Humans are good at catching fast-moving objects -- just ask any baseball fan. Robots typically lag behind, however, which is why the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has developed a robot arm with the reaction time needed to catch just about anything. 

After learning the basic concepts by imitating human behavior, the machine uses its cameras to predict the path of a flying object and grab it in less than five hundredths of a second -- roughly as fast as it takes you to blink. It can even adapt to objects whose center of gravity is likely to shift around, such as a half-full drink bottle.

The EPFL's breakthrough may first find a practical use in space, where it could catch orbiting debris before it hits satellites. It will certainly be useful here on Earth, though. Safety-minded robots could catch falling people, and the underlying motion detection could help driverless cars avoid collisions. 

While it's doubtful that you'll see robots on a baseball field anytime soon, it might not be long before they can offer a helping hand in a crisis.

Researchers took a lightweight robot arm from German company KUKA and attached an Allegro Hand from SimLab. KUKA's lightweight robot (the LBR) is notable because it can be trained by movement, so LASA researchers attached the hand and physically guided the robot arm through the motion of catching various objects, while guiding cameras watched. This "programming by demonstration" allowed the arm and hand to build a model of the various objects flying through the air and then applied that information to catching the objects on its own.

"Training requires about 20 examples for each type of object," LASA professor Aude Billard told Mashable in an email. "Writing the code — or rather, developing the algorithm — is the result of two to three years of work of the two main researchers, Dr. Seungsu Kim and Ashwini Shukla."

The end result is a multi-jointed, tabletop robot arm that displays incredible speed and agility — and, at least in the video, never misses a catch.

While the robot arm is fun to watch, it works toward a serious goal, according to Billard, who founded the LASA lab in 2002. They want to build a robot that can adjust to changing environments and situations in a fraction of a second. They want to build a robot that can adjust to changing environments and situations in a fraction of a second. Imagine, for instance, a robot catching someone before he falls or grasping a falling object before it hits someone on the head. Billard says the research could also lead to better in-car reaction systems to help drivers avoid collisions.

Major leaguers should take note, too. The robot's response time is quick enough to catch a fastball thrown by a Major League Baseball pitcher, Billard said, as long as a high-speed camera is on the field. She added that catching a fastball is actually easier than catching a tennis racket, because the robot doesn't need to adopt a particular orientation; when catching a tennis racket, the robot must align the orientation of its hand with that of the racket.

Next, the LASA lab is working on applying this technology to a robot that can catch debris in space for the Swiss Space Center.

VIA Phys.org

SOURCE EPFL