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14 June 2021 /
The surprisingly complicated technology that goes into picking winners
Choosing and gathering an apple is simple for humans, but it’s a task that has frustrated robotics researchers for decades. Now, thanks to a
Matrix simulation-style training regime, it seems it’s finally within reach.
Credit: Ambi Robotics.
C
an robots be trained to pick up after us? A recent breakthrough in machine learning could point the way toward a much more tactile future for these smartest of machines.
In April the ABC carried a report about a new machine put to work in the apple orchards of Tasmania, helping pickers – of whom there are far fewer, because of pandemic-closed borders – to shoulder the burden. Instead of bearing a heavy sack of freshly picked fruit, the machinery offers a conveyor belt from picker’s hand to storage bin. That seems a small thing, until you consider what it means to be freed of 10 or 15 kilos of dead weight every time they reach up to pick
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So, let me preempt this by saying that there are plenty of robotics verticals worth getting excited about. But at the moment, everyone sure seems focused on warehouse fulfillment. It’s understandable, of course. Right now, it’s Amazon versus the world, and the retail giant certainly has a leg up on much of the world on the robotics front questions around human labor are a different conversation entirely (though that’s also one I’m happy to have).
I’ve spoken to a number of executives at top fulfillment robotics companies, and the message is pretty much the same across the board: How can they stay competitive with Amazon? There’s an answer to that question dripping with more existential dread than I would care to impart in a robotics roundup on a Thursday morning, so I’ll just say that, for better or worse, the easiest answer it automation.
Andra Keay 0:05
So welcome, everybody. Welcome to our first society robots and us for 2021. And I’m looking forward to a discussion that is going to help us set the agenda for robotics in 2021 and beyond. And I think it’s very important that as our technology emerges, we address the issues around how it is affecting society, and how it can have an impact both positive and negative on society. And so we have wonderful conversations. And we started doing this event in the early days of the COVID era, and we were focusing on so what actually does it mean? How can robotics and roboticists help in this time of pandemics, and it was a fantastic conversation, and we decided that it was time to expand the topic, and to start to talk about things like racism in robotics, global challenges and how we address those. So it’s one of my favorite events. And I’m delighted to see so many people. Joining us now, my role is to warm up for the speakers and the rest of the discussion, I’ll j