Robot Learns to Flip Pancakes

A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo.
Flipping a pancake� seems like one of those things you can do when you are just barely awake and still to get your morning caffeine.
Not so, if you are a robot. Then learning how to flip a pancake is quite a task and it can take 50 tries to get it right.
Two researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology?Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon?taught a robot the� technique. The robot needs to hold its hand stiff to throw the pancake in the air and then flex the hand so it can catch the pancake without having it bounced off the pan. Initially, one of the researchers holds the robot?s arm to show it how it is done, after which the robot tries it.
For the demonstration, the researchers used an artificial pancake that?s solid and, as you can see in the video above, clunks every time it hits the pan or elsewhere.
The robot itself is from Barrett Technology, a company that makes an advanced robotic arm called WAM. The WAM arm has near zero backflash or friction so it makes very smooth movements. It can have up to seven degrees of freedom so it offers a range of motions that?s similar to what a human arm can do.
The researchers hope to present the learning from the robot?s efforts at a conference in October. And if you are wondering, what exactly this experiment has achieved, the answer involves the application of algorithms that help learn by imitation and reinforcement.
Video credits: Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon/Italian Institute of Technology
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