New Handheld Robot Tools Can Guide Humans in Everday Tasks

First Posted: May 27, 2015 09:00 AM EDT
Close

Imagine if handheld tools knew what needed to be done and could guide an inexperienced user. Scientists have started developing something that may help humans with everyday chores around the house: intelligent, handheld robots.

Handheld tools are normally blunt, unintelligent instruments that are unaware of the context they operate in. For example, humans need to direct a power drill for a task and can't necessarily receive "help" from that tool when something goes awry.

In this case, though, researchers have worked on the design of robot prototypes and how best to interact with a tool that "knows and acts." More specifically, they've worked on comparing tools with increasing levels of autonomy.

Compared to other tools, such as power tools, the handheld robots are designed to have more degrees of motion to allow greater independence from the motions of the user. In addition, the robots are aware of the steps being carried out; this allows for a new level of cooperation between user and tool, such as the user providing tactical motions or directions and the tool performing the detailed task.

"There are three basic levels of autonomy we are considering: no autonomy, semi-autonomous when the robot advises the user but does not act, and fully autonomous when the robot advises and acts even by correcting or refusing to perform incorrect user actions," said Walterio Mayol-Cuevas, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In this case, the researchers studied user's task performance and user preference on two tasks. These tasks included picking and dropping off different objects to form tile patterns, and aiming in 3D for simulated painting.

"Our results indicate that users tend to prefer a tool that is fully autonomous and there is evidence for a significant impact on completion time and reduced perceived workload for autonomous handheld," said Austin Gregg-Smith, one of the researchers. "However, users sometimes also expressed how different it is to work with this type of novel robot."

The current robot designs are open source and available online.

Related Stories

BRETT: The Robot that Learns to Complete Tasks like a Human (VIDEO)

Scientists Create a Robot Arm that Moves by Thought Alone

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).

See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone

©2017 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics