Scholar hits on recipe to train robots

Photo / Thinkstock

Cooking shows perfect tool for teaching computers object use, says Kiwi academic.

An endless video loop of cooking shows could hold the key to robots that can unstack a dishwasher and play Lego with the kids, a New Zealand student of robotics says.

Fulbright scholar Sam Corbett-Davies has begun a PhD in artificial intelligence at the prestigious Stanford University in the US to learn how robots recognise objects and how they are used.

Mr Corbett-Davies, who has a Bachelor of Engineering in mechatronics from Canterbury University, hopes his work might one day be used to develop a robot that can be taught how to do domestic work.

As part of his work on his PhD, the 23-year-old from Napier will create a system of computers that will watch YouTube videos over and over to learn about the millions of objects used by humans and how they interact with them.

Mr Corbett-Davies said that at present, computers can recognise humans and some objects but do not recognise how humans interact with the objects.

"Just knowing it's a knife is not very useful, it needs to know that's a knife and it is used to cut things," he said.

Learning about objects in the kitchen would be the first part of his study, he said.

"Cooking shows are really good because there will be a close-up on the tool that they're using or the food that they are making, so there's lots of detail for us to see. It's an instructional video by its nature so it's exactly what we're looking for to try and learn from."

He said the results of his study could be used to develop robots which could carry out chores at home and entertain children.

"This work could allow a ... robot to learn to operate your dishwasher, or play Lego with your kids."