Robots may have a knack for
super-human strength and precision, but they still struggle with some basic
human tasks -- like folding laundry or making a cup of coffee. Enter Blue, a
new low-cost, human-friendly robot conceived and built by a team of researchers
at the University of California, Berkeley. Blue was designed to use recent
advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and deep reinforcement learning to
master intricate human tasks, all while remaining affordable and safe enough
that every artificial intelligence researcher could have one. Blue's durable,
plastic parts and high-performance motors total less than $5,000 to manufacture
and assemble.
Its arms, each about the size of
the average bodybuilder's, are sensitive to outside forces (like a hand pushing
it away) and has rounded edges and minimal pinch points to avoid catching stray
fingers. Blue's arms can be very stiff, like a human flexing, or very flexible,
like a human relaxing, or anything in between. Currently, the team is building
10 arms in-house to distribute to select early adopters. They are continuing to
investigate Blue's durability and to tackle the formidable challenge of
manufacturing the robot on a larger scale, which will happen through the UC
Berkeley spinoff Berkeley Open Arms. Sign-ups for expressing interest in
priority access start today on that site.
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