week 4. Robots taught to think like humans

At Cornell University's Personal Robotics Lab scientists are working to make robot computers think like humans. They are trying to teach robots to learn new things by using what they are already programmed to know. They basically want robots to be able to generalize about things instead of having to program each and every thing individually. For example, instead of programming a robot to know that a specific kind of cup is a cup, they are trying to program the robots with general info about cups so that they will be able to recognize various types of cups. Also, it is easier for a robot to pick something up than put it down. When a robot sets something down they have to make sure that the surface they are putting it on is stable. It is easy for a robot to pick a plate up, but, to put it in the dishwasher upright is a bit more challenging. Cornell is working on making robots work as efficiently as they can without having to spend large amouts of time programming every task. I think that if they can basically perfect what the robot does then maybe some day in the future people will have robots in their house to clean and pick up after them. Humans are pretty lazy after all and a robot would be able to help out.