AI-Powered Coffee-Making Robot Breaks New Ground in Adaptive Robotics

Coffee-making robot breaks new ground for AI machines

An AI-powered robot that can prepare cups of coffee in a busy kitchen could usher in the next generation of intelligent machines, a study suggests. Using a combination of cutting-edge AI, sensitive sensors and fine-tuned motor skills, the robot can interact with its surroundings in more human-like ways than ever before, researchers say. The new technology, developed by a team at the University of Edinburgh, could transform robots' ability to carry out tasks that previously could only be done by people. While robots are adept at working in tightly controlled settings such as factories and production lines, they struggle in dynamic, unpredictable places like kitchens, experts say. This is because robots have traditionally relied on pre-programmed actions and responses, and lack the ability to adapt to unforeseen obstacles in real-time, the researchers say. Now, the Edinburgh team has combined advances in sensitive motor skills and AI to create a robot that can interact skilfully with objects and people in challenging settings. Previous developments in these areas had taken place largely independent of each other, the team says. The new device -- a robotic arm with seven movable joints -- first interprets verbal instructions it receives, then analyses its surroundings. Next, it searches the kitchen to find a mug by working out how to access drawers with opening mechanisms it has never encountered before. The robot then measures and mixes a set ratio of ground coffee from a jar with water from a kettle. The technology behind the robot enables it to adapt seamlessly to unforeseen events, such as if someone bumps or moves the mug unexpectedly while it is working, the team says. The research, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The work was led by Ruaridh Mon-Williams, a PhD student jointly at the University of Edinburgh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. Ruaridh Mon-Williams, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics, said: "We are glimpsing a future where robots with increasingly advanced intelligence become commonplace. Human intelligence stems from the integration of reasoning, movement and perception, yet AI and robotics have often advanced separately. Our work demonstrates the power of combining these approaches and underscores the growing need to discuss their societal implications."

Coffee-making robot breaks new ground for AI machines

An AI-powered robot that can prepare cups of coffee in a busy kitchen could usher in the next generation of intelligent machines, a study suggests. The research, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, was led by Ruaridh Mon-Williams, a Ph.D. student jointly at the University of Edinburgh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. Using a combination of cutting-edge AI, sensitive sensors and fine-tuned motor skills, the robot can interact with its surroundings in more human-like ways than ever before, researchers say. The new technology, developed by a team at the University of Edinburgh, could transform robots' ability to carry out tasks that previously could only be done by people. While robots are adept at working in tightly controlled settings such as factories and production lines, they struggle in dynamic, unpredictable places like kitchens, experts say. This is because robots have traditionally relied on pre-programmed actions and responses, and lack the ability to adapt to unforeseen obstacles in real-time, the researchers say. Now, the Edinburgh team has combined advances in sensitive motor skills and AI to create a robot that can interact skillfully with objects and people in challenging settings. Previous developments in these areas had taken place largely independent of each other, the team says. The new device -- a robotic arm with seven movable joints -- first interprets verbal instructions it receives, then analyzes its surroundings. Next, it searches the kitchen to find a mug by working out how to access drawers with opening mechanisms it has never encountered before. The robot then measures and mixes a set ratio of ground coffee from a jar with water from a kettle. The technology behind the robot enables it to adapt seamlessly to unforeseen events, such as if someone bumps or moves the mug unexpectedly while it is working, the team says. Mon-Williams said, "We are glimpsing a future where robots with increasingly advanced intelligence become commonplace. Human intelligence stems from the integration of reasoning, movement and perception, yet AI and robotics have often advanced separately. Our work demonstrates the power of combining these approaches and underscores the growing need to discuss their societal implications."

University students create AI-powered coffee-brewing robot arm

A team of robotics researchers at the University of Edinburgh have designed a robot arm powered by AI that can serve people coffee and carry out other tasks. According to a study published in the Nature Machine Intelligence journal by the university on Wednesday, the researchers combined AI (specifically GPT-4) with advanced sensitive motor skills and programmed them into the robot arm, which has seven movable joints and dubbed the Kinova Gen3, so that it can adapt to tightly controlled settings and interact with objects and obstacles in real-time. In the case of the robot arm, one of the tightly controlled environments is the kitchen. Recommended Videos The researchers put Kinova to the test by asking it to make a cup of coffee and decorate a plate with a random animal for a human who is having friends over for cake. Kinova interpreted the verbal instructions and navigated the kitchen by opening cabinets to find a mug. Then it set the mug down on the table, scooped a spoon of ground coffee from a jar, emptied it into the mug, and poured in hot water from the kettle. Finally, it took a pen and drew an animal of its choice onto a paper plate. By breaking down the tasks from high priority to lowest -- coffee first, plate decoration second -- and adapting to unforeseen events, like someone bumping into it, Kinova was able to do execute abstract reasoning thanks to the programming provided by GPT-4 and other open-source AI programs, including as Haystack and Vebra. Ruaridh Mon-Williams, a PhD student at Edinburgh who led the study, said this is the sort of future we're heading towards. "We are glimpsing a future where robots with increasingly advanced intelligence become commonplace," Mon-Williams said. "Human intelligence stems from the integration of reasoning, movement and perception, yet AI and robotics have often advanced separately. Our work demonstrates the power of combining these approaches and underscores the growing need to discuss their societal implications." This means that somewhere down the line, the next cup of coffee you get from Starbucks or any other coffee shop will come from a robot.