Technische Universität Wien: Self-learning robot that cleans washbasins in imitation of humans

Researchers at the Technical University of Vienna have developed a self-learning robot that can mimic a human cleaning a washbasin. Traditional robot programming is complex for modeling washbasins, and the team trained the robot with a combination of human demonstrations and haptic data, a learning method that can be applied to a wide range of industrial production tasks. Learning in a similar way to humans, the team developed special cleaning tools, generated data and processed it through several demonstrations so that the robot understands the correct way to clean, and also used innovative data processing strategies. In the future, the robot could be mounted on a mobile platform, becoming a powerful assistant on the shop floor and able to pass on its experience to other robots.