Modern robotics is already pretty well developed. It is enough to look at least at the latest successes of Boston Dynamics or remember that a plant is already being built in China, where robots will create other robots. However, as a rule, some robotic mechanisms work well only together with others. The robots are still very poor at working together with a person on the same task (namely, to work, and not to receive commands from the operator). But a group of researchers in Japan has developed an algorithm that will help robots learn this skill too.
The development is backed by engineers at the University of Tokyo, led by Masatoshi Ishikawa, and reportedly have created a dynamic, interactive human-robot interaction system that allows the machine to adapt with high speed and low latency for joint operations.
The manipulator test sample has 3 "fingers" on the robotic "hand". A set of infrared sensors and a high-precision tracking system based on a high-speed camera allows you to capture the smallest details in a person's movements, "predict" based on them the next movements of an object, and thus adjust to work together. To do this, however, you still need to attach a number of reflective markers to the object itself in order to track it.
Scheme of the manipulator arm.
At the same time, at the moment, the robot can rotate an object around two axes and move it so that it is always in a horizontal position. The developers themselves admit that the system can still be improved and significantly improved and can be used on a wide variety of production, handling and assembly lines.
But already now, as a demonstration of the technology's promise, scientists have put a metal plate on a metal cylinder. A robot was holding on to one edge of the plate, and a person who set the trajectory of movement, which you can see for yourself in the video below, held on to the other.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
Promotional video: