Video: 'PR2 Playpen' Keeps Robots Entertained (and Learning) For Hours and Hours

By Clay Dillow Posted 05.27.2011 at 11:23 am 7 Comments

PR2, Playing

Willow Garage’s PR2 robot can fold laundry, play billiards, and fetch a beer from the fridge. But can it pick up a spoon? Georgia Tech roboticists have built what they are calling a “PR2 Playpen” that serves to keep their adorable ‘bot entertained around the clock. But like any good children’s toy, the PR2 Playpen isn’t just entertaining--it’s educational as well.

Robots have particular trouble with abstract concepts, and even with connecting the dots between two very similar concepts. As such, they have trouble interacting with objects that they haven’t specifically interacted with before. So even if a ‘bot knows how to manipulate, say, a soup spoon, a larger salad spoon might confuse it even though the two are--at least in concept and in usage--the same thing.

There are two ways to overcome this: teach a robot to become familiar with every possible object in the world, or create algorithms that help a robot figure out how to manipulate certain objects on its own, without prior experience. The latter option is naturally ideal, and that’s what the PR2 Playpen is all about.

A conveyor belt keeps a stream of objects coming into the robot’s workspace, where the algorithms go to work helping PR2 study and assess them. PR2 then tries to manipulate them. Autonomously, the robot tries different strategies to pick up each object and then to return it to the workspace. As you can see in the video, it’s a hit-and-miss approach, but with each object more data is collected that can be used to improve the manipulation algorithms. (This should come in handy should Willow Garage respond to PopSci’s plea for a PR2 for our offices, as we have lots of cool toys for it to play with.)

Bonus: the Playpen requires no adult supervision, so PR2 can play all day and all night, building on its algorithms around the clock. Think about that as you’re laying down to sleep tonight: while you are resting comfortably, somewhere out there the machines are getting smarter. Sweet dreams.

[IEEE Spectrum]

Previous Article: Google Wallet Uses NFC for Credit-Card-Replacing Mobile Payments

Next Article: Chinese Prisoners Forced to Virtually Farm Gold in Video Games

7 Comments

Link to this comment

MDW

05/27/11 at 12:07 pm

Great last line! It brings to mind another quote about our future overlords:

"The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." ~Yudkowsky

Link to this comment

JediMindset

05/27/11 at 2:31 pm

soon it will awaken and realize that its a supreme being.

Link to this comment

science.good

05/27/11 at 5:39 pm

I think it's right handed.

Link to this comment

marc.killpack

05/30/11 at 7:06 am

I'm the guy who looks like he isn't breathing regularly in the video (remember it is sped up at least 10 times). :)

More information on the project (including a highly sped up video of 8 hours of testing with no human supervision) can be found at www.ros.org/wiki/pr2_playpen. An overview of our lab's work in general can be found at healthcare-robotics.com. Thanks a lot for the great article!

Link to this comment

Moezart

05/31/11 at 1:18 pm

Lets just fix this so it says what they realllllyy mean,
"Robots have particular trouble with abstract concepts, and even with connecting the dots between two very similar concepts. As such, they have trouble interacting with objects that they haven’t specifically interacted with before. So even if a ‘bot knows how to kill, say, a soup child, a larger adult might confuse it even though the two are--at least in concept and in usage--the same thing."

Link to this comment

Moezart

05/31/11 at 1:18 pm

Lets just fix this so it says what they realllllyy mean,
"Robots have particular trouble with abstract concepts, and even with connecting the dots between two very similar concepts. As such, they have trouble interacting with objects that they haven’t specifically interacted with before. So even if a ‘bot knows how to kill, say, a child, a larger adult might confuse it even though the two are--at least in concept and in usage--the same thing."

Link to this comment

drchuck1

06/01/11 at 2:09 pm

robots teaching themselves is another step towards them not needing us

Popular Tags

Technology

All Tags All Photos All Videos

Technology

+ More Photo Galleries

July 2013: The Future Of Flight

The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.