Robot Cook Shown How To Mix

Sylvain Calinon is a teacher, but his student doesn't have to stop in the afternoon for milk, cookies and a nap. That's because Calinon is teaching a small robot, in this case various kinesthetic and learning skills. And in the end, the robot could be making the cookies on its own – the eventual plan is to have a machine capable of cooking tasks based upon recipes it has seen being made and movements it's been taught.Check out the video of Sylvain's robot in action after the cut

Kinesthetic learning in this case means guiding the robots limbs to demonstrate key movements. By doing it hands-on, rather than remotely programming it, the user understands the limitations of the robot's design (e.g. how far back its arm can move) and the robot associates the action in terms of its environment. Sylvain couples that with observational learning, where the robot watches and replicates his actions.

The actual details of Sylvain's project aren't disclosed – perhaps because it's ongoing – but he's made some of the source code available to download if you're interested in tinkering yourself.

[via Hack a Day]