TU Wien in Vienna has unveiled a robot that does more than follow set commands—it learns by watching humans. Show it how to clean a sink, and this robot picks up the moves, adapting its technique to various shapes and surfaces. It’s a huge leap for robots taking on repetitive tasks we’d rather avoid, like bathroom cleaning!
Watch it in action:
Robots are here to take over the dull and dirty jobs but automating tasks like sink scrubbing isn’t as simple as it sounds. Precise programming to cover every curve and corner is time-consuming. That’s why the team at TU Wien took a new route: let the robot learn by observing. With just a few demos, the robot can “see” how cleaning should look, allowing it to transfer this knowledge to similar tasks in different shapes and sizes.
A Smarter Sponge for Smarter Robots
Researchers equipped a cleaning sponge with sensors and tracking markers, capturing key data as a person demonstrated cleaning techniques on a sink’s edge. This data, processed with advanced machine learning, lets the robot learn specific movements like pressure control and the right angle for each surface. So, instead of rigid programming, the robot is flexible, adjusting its moves based on the surface.
Moving Beyond Sinks
This flexible learning has big implications for other tasks, like sanding, polishing, and even welding. The vision is to put these robots on mobile platforms to help out wherever needed in a workshop. And if multiple workshops use these self-learning robots, they could even share their knowledge through “federated learning,” improving together without compromising privacy.
A Win at IROS 2024
This project didn’t just stay under the radar. At IROS 2024, one of the top robotics conferences, TU Wien’s sink-cleaning robot received the ‘Best Application Paper Award,’ recognizing it as one of the year’s top innovations. This breakthrough in adaptive learning could mean big things for the future of automation, where robots don’t just follow instructions—they learn and improve.
Original Story: Robot Learns How to Clean a Washbasin | TU Wien
