If James and Rosie are anything to go by personal robots are soon going to be cooking your breakfast and putting away your groceries. James is a product of the US robotics company Willow Garage and Rosie has been built by the Technical University of Munich.
The two robots showed exceptional skill as they whipped up a traditional Bavarian breakfast called Weisswurst Fruhstuck. Rosie has massive orange arms which she used effectively to collect two sausages then put them into a pot of boiling water. She then waited till they were cooked before straining them out and serving them on a plate.
Robotic Roommates Shopping for and Preparing Bavarian Breakfast
In the meanwhile PR2 James was seen identifying and placing groceries away after which he sliced bread to go with the sausages. James used an electric bread slicer on a baguette. Then he served the sausages and sliced baguette together.
The two robots had been taught the 3D models for the different objects that they needed to recognize such as the bowls on the table or the groceries that needed to be put away. James uses a RGB-D or red, green, blue and depth sensor to detect the bread and the slicer. He used haptic abilities to hold and manipulate the plate.
Rosie uses these tools along with a perception algorithm from a COP or cognitive perception module in order to calibrate the skimmer. She also has torque sensors that helped her resolve depth measurement issues. Blog segmentation allowed her to see where the sausages were in the pot. Both robots are cutting edge and may prove that the housekeeping robot from the future is not too long a wait away.