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Japanese robot learns to help people get dressed

Japanese robot learns to help people get dressed

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Robot learning puts shirt on
Robot learning puts shirt on

Japanese researchers are solving problems for the elderly and disabled in the best way possible: robots. The two-armed machine is trained to put a shirt on a dummy through reinforcement learning; after receiving guidance, it works alone, measuring success with motion capture dots. This common method prevents the robot from hurting people with strictly programmed motions, and allows it to learn addition tasks, like putting on pants. The elderly have had trouble accepting nursing robots before, but if moderate assistance is more tolerable, this one could be attractive to the understaffed Japanese care industry. Watch a short demonstration at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology below.