Autonomous Grasping Robots to Help Maintain Space Habitats

Watch this video to see how Purdue University researchers are using machine learning to train a robot to recognize a jumbled pile of items, locate the one item it needs, and retrieve it in the most efficient way.

“It’s easy for robots to manipulate things if the environment is set up perfectly, like at an Amazon warehouse,” said David Cappelleri , professor of mechanical engineering. “But in a dynamic environment like a human habitat, objects will sometimes be all over the place, or hidden underneath other objects. A robot needs to be smart enough to not only locate an object, but also position itself to successfully grasp and manipulate the object.”