Google’s former robotics team focuses on simple robots and machine learning

‘Robotics at Google’ is a new division within Google that, in contrast to the previously divested Boston Dynamics, focuses on relatively simple robots and machine learning. This new division employs many members of Google’s former robotics team.

Robotics at Google mainly focuses on the software side of robots. In that context, the company is working on applying machine learning more often to robotics. The intention is that robots will be able to learn skills and improve themselves. Robotics at Google is mainly focused on developing relatively simple robots for everyday tasks, such as machines that can sort a range of unknown objects in a container or maneuver through an interior with the necessary unexpected obstacles.

An example of what Robotics at Google is working on is a robot that was developed together with researchers from several American universities. This TossingBot can learn how to pick up various objects, such as plastic bananas and ping pong balls, and then throw them into the designated bins.

According to Google, TossingBot’s ability to learn to throw allows it to pick up objects twice as fast as previous systems. Also, the placement of the objects is twice as effective. The robot learns grasping and throwing through a neural network that links visual observations to movement parameters. By means of overhanging cameras, the robot can improve itself on its own.

TossingBot is an example of what the folks at Robotics at Google are focusing on. The robot, basically a mechanical arm, didn’t know what to do with the pile of objects presented to it at first. However, after trying and making mistakes, and thanks to the ability to learn through the overhanging camera, the robot was able to throw the objects into the correct container. After fourteen hours, a throwing precision of 85 percent and a gripping reliability of 87 percent were achieved.

The New York Times has had access to where the robots of the Google component are made and operate. The medium writes that the company is working alongside TossingBot on a three-fingered robot that can manipulate objects by rotating or sliding them. In addition, a mobile, driving, R2-D2-like robot from the company Fetch is being trained. He must learn to navigate through unfamiliar spaces.