It's so astonishing that what takes this robot over an hour and a half to do can be processed by our brains in a fraction of a second. I am looking forward to being witness to the tightening of that gap.
Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
21–30 of 32 posts
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#22Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#23My first reaction: How much time and money did this cost? How is this benefiting anything? Is this a test of some operating system that will be used on other, more useful things, or just a science project?
I guess I'm not familiar with the whole world of robots-- maybe this stuff is normal and fine I'm thinking too much at 3 AM..
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#24My first reaction: How much time and money did this cost? How is this benefiting anything? Is this a test of some operating system that will be used on other, more useful things, or just a science project?
I'm just saying, I don't see how this is efficient outside of "can we make a robot that folds towels?" Sure, it's pretty cool, even putting aside its slowness, but it seems like a lot of effort towards something with little application. When you're just /learning/ robotics you're supposed to experiment and make useless stuff, but this seems like a professional project. I guess I'm not familiar with the whole world of…
There's a lot going on here, and it's valuable to have done it.
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#25The robot is, true to its species description to date, robotic. It is performing the exact same sequence of operations - almost like first trying to generate a 3D model of the towel (the spin) followed by some cross checks (the twists) and then proceeds to fold it. It looks like there is no learning apparent from one towel fold to the next, which would be thoroughly fascinating if it were done in even the littlest of…
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#26The robot is, true to its species description to date, robotic. It is performing the exact same sequence of operations - almost like first trying to generate a 3D model of the towel (the spin) followed by some cross checks (the twists) and then proceeds to fold it. It looks like there is no learning apparent from one towel fold to the next, which would be thoroughly fascinating if it were done in even the littlest of…
For comparison, checkout Rodney Brook's robot "Domo" - http://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks/currentrobots.html
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#27Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#28This illustrates an important way of staying competitive globally: You don't want to be the country where people fold towels. You want to be the country that designs & builds robots that fold towels.
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#29The robot is, true to its species description to date, robotic. It is performing the exact same sequence of operations - almost like first trying to generate a 3D model of the towel (the spin) followed by some cross checks (the twists) and then proceeds to fold it. It looks like there is no learning apparent from one towel fold to the next, which would be thoroughly fascinating if it were done in even the littlest of…
Re: Robot that autonomously folds a pile of towels
#30This illustrates an important way of staying competitive globally: You don't want to be the country where people fold towels. You want to be the country that designs & builds robots that fold towels.
Yes. In 20 or 30 years when a robot can actually fold a towel as quickly as a human, those towel-folding economies are going to be in trouble. ;)