MIT Researchers Use Radio Waves To Help Robots Find Hidden Objects (engadget.com) 15
A group of scientists from MIT have equipped a robot with a wrist-mounted camera and an RF reader to help it find hidden objects. "As long an item has an RF tag on it, the robot can find it, even if it's hidden behind things like wrapping paper," reports Engadget. From the report: The team told MIT News the most challenging aspect of developing RF Grasp was integrating both sight and RF vision into its decision-making process. They compare the current system to how you might react to a sound in the distance by turning your head to pinpoint its source. RF Grasp will initially use its RF reader to find tagged objects, but the closer it gets to something, the more it depends on the information it collects through its camera to make a decision. Compared to a robot with only a visual system, RF Grasp can locate and pick up an object in about half as many total movements. It also has the unique ability to clean up and declutter its working space as it goes about its tasks.
The team sees RF Grasp helping companies like Amazon further automate and streamline their warehouses. "Perception and picking are two roadblocks in the industry today," said Associate Professor Alberto Rodriguez, one of the researchers who worked on the project.
The team sees RF Grasp helping companies like Amazon further automate and streamline their warehouses. "Perception and picking are two roadblocks in the industry today," said Associate Professor Alberto Rodriguez, one of the researchers who worked on the project.
I for one (Score:2)
"I for one welcome our quickly picking overlords"
As usual, eventually this is going to obviate the need for humans to pee in bottles while being treated like robots.
And it'll be used to fire the warehouse workers in high cost areas first. This means both the states where the Amazon peasants unionized and the ones where the base rate is high.
And it'll create a bunch more jobs you need to master useless hoopjumping to get paid an absurd salary...
Yeah, I did that, ten years ago. (Score:4, Interesting)
It was a simple side-project to precise indoor location tracking. You just stick RFID tags on everything, and have your device use its RFID reader to locate it and other things in relation to each other. It's like RADAR except the thing can tell the blips apart automatically too.
The key trick here is to be very very precise with your run time measurement and timings. A challenge for mobile devices back then, even with specialized hardware.
And I only built mine after reading some work by Nokia, from years earlier.
So congratulations for arriving in about 2007, MIT! :)
Re: (Score:2)
This was my conclusion. How is this research significant. No shit sherlock, RFID tags can be read through wrapping paper.
Re: (Score:3)
"This was my conclusion. How is this research significant. No shit sherlock, RFID tags can be read through wrapping paper."
They invented paper-piercing radio-waves!
My 50 year old transistor-radio even catches them through WALLS.
Re: (Score:2)
One of the authors here.
I like when our papers are discussed on Slashdot, but often the discussion is misleading so here's some clarification.
First, let's get one thing straight: Neither we nor you could have done this back in 2007, and it's not just better hardware that allowed this today. It's also not just about RF signals going through occlusions since it is not simply about "detecting" all RFIDs near the robot. Rather, grasping requires (1) getting the RFID location right down to centimeter-scale pre
Slashdot: Undergraduate research journal for nerds (Score:1)
FFS
Re: Slashdot: Undergraduate research journal for n (Score:2)
Back when I was an undergrad, I didn't appreciate the sting that an insult like that was meant to impart.
Re: (Score:1)
Being called short, tall, fat, thin, young, old, inexperienced, tired, male, female ... WHATEVER! is NEVER a reason to take personal offence and position oneself as a victim.
Re: Slashdot: Undergraduate research journal for (Score:2)
Okay...?
technically no (Score:2)
Technically it can't find objects, only RFID tags. And what happens if I fill my environment with RFID tags, can it still find the right one out of thousands? The wrapping paper in the experiment didn't even have an RFID tag, in the real world we'd have it on everything right?