Ein sich selbst reparierender und optimierender Roboter

Ingenieure der Universität Tokio haben einem Roboter beigebracht, wie er sich selbst reparieren kann. So ist er in der Lage, Schrauben an sich zu lockern und sie festzuziehen. Außerdem hat er sich einen Haken zum Aufhängen einer Einkaufstasche an die Schulter gebaut. Was man als Roboter halt so braucht.

At the moment, the robot can’t directly detect on its own whether a particular screw needs tightening, although it can tell if its physical pose doesn’t match its digital model, which suggests that something has gone wonky. It can also check its screws autonomously from time to time, or rely on a human physically pointing out that it has a screw loose, using the human’s finger location to identify which screw it is. Another challenge is that most robots, like most humans, are limited in the areas on themselves that they can comfortably reach. So to tighten up everything, they might have to find themselves a robot friend to help, just like humans help each other put on sunblock.

(Direktlink, via BoingBoing)