Wednesday, July 2, 2008

UMass UMan robot made to manipulate objects

By Mass High Tech Staff

 
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a robot that can learn how to manipulate objects new to it by pushing them around and discovering how they move.

According to a report in MIT’s Technology Review, the UMass Mobile Manipulator robot — called UMan moves objects around a table, suing a single jointed arm ending in a three-fingered hand. The UMan sees how the objects move using a standard webcam. If the object has moving parts, UMan will manipulate it until it figures how the parts work together and will then begin manipulating the object. View a video clip of UMan.

UMass Amherst graduate student Dov Katz and professor of computer science Oliver Brock created the UMan. The robot identifies the edge of an object by analyzing adjacent pixels. Once it starts moving the object around, it gradually develops a clear sense of its shape and movement, and, if it encounters resistance in that movement, determines if the object has a joint or not.

Earlier this week, NASA reported that UMass Amherst graduate student Erin Dominov had won an internship with the space agency, working at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., as well as at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.