Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques

Inext to the robotics laboratory of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a group of robots are busy cooking. There’s nothing special about that; robot chefs have been around for a while. But these robots are more adept than most: they can flip pancakes, cut vegetables, and make pizzas with ease. The difference is that, instead of being painstakingly programmed to perform their tasks, the Cambridge robots have learned only a basic set of skills. Harnessing the wonders of artificial intelligence (AI), they quickly honed those skills to become much more agile.