Toyota Research Institute builds 'robot kindergarten' and uses AI to teach robots to make breakfast

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is using generative artificial intelligence in a “robot kindergarten” to teach robots how to make breakfast, or at least complete the various tasks required for breakfast. Instead of spending hundreds of hours coding and debugging, they can do this by giving the robots a tactile sensor, plugging it into an artificial intelligence model, and then showing them how to operate as they would a human.

Researchers note that tactile perception plays a key role in advancing robotics technology. By equipping a robot with a large, soft thumb, the model can sense its own movements and gain more information, making some difficult tasks easier to accomplish than relying solely on vision.

Ben Burchfiel, the lab's dexterous operations manager, said it's exciting to see the robots interact with their environment. First, a "teacher" demonstrates a series of skills, and then over a few hours, the model learns in the background. He added: "We often teach a robot in the afternoon, have it learn overnight, and then see a new behavior the next morning."

The researchers said they are trying to create "large behavioral models" (LBMs) ​​for robots. Similar to how LLMs are trained by paying attention to patterns in human writing, Toyota's LBMs will learn through observation and be able to "generalize" to perform new skills that have not been taught before.

The researchers say they have used this method to train more than 60 challenging skills, such as pouring liquids, using tools and manipulating deformable objects. Their goal is to increase this number to 1,000

by the end of 2024

IT House noticed that Google is also conducting similar research. Similar to the method adopted by Toyota researchers, their robot RT-2 uses its own experience to infer how to do things. In theory, AI-trained robots could eventually perform some tasks without requiring too many instructions.

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