Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have introduced an interesting development called RoboGrocery. It's a robotic system that has computer vision and a soft hand to accurately package a wide variety of items, including pressure-sensitive fruits and foods, Techcrunch.com reports. To demonstrate RoboGrocery's capabilities, researchers placed 10 items unknown to the robot. on the grocery strip. In addition to rigid items such as ice cream containers and food boxes, there were also more pressure-sensitive foods such as grapes, muffins and crackers. and determining location. When the robotic arm touches the grape, integrated pressure sensors detect that the item is soft, meaning it should not be placed at the bottom of the container. The robot then decides that the soup can has a more rigid structure, after which it places it first in the container.
"This is an important first step towards having robots pack groceries and other items in real life. Although we are not quite ready to apply it commercially, our research has shown that it is possible to integrate multiple sensing methods into soft robotic systems," said Anna Zhang, one of the developers of RoboGrocery. The developers noted that in RoboGrocery there are many things to improve, including upgrading the grasping and visual system to improve the process of determining the order in which products are packed. Along with becoming more reliable, this system can be used outside of grocery stores, such as in industry and waste treatment plants.
