Here, their robot (aptly named Julia) shows off cooking skills:
The researchers — Yiannis Aloimonos, a computer science professor , Cornelia Fermüller, an associate research scientist, Yezhou Yang, a doctoral student in computer science, and Yi Li, a U-Md. PhD who is now a senior researcher in computer vision at the National Information Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence in Australia — chose cooking as a goal since it’s something everyone can understand. (Even if they can’t do it.)
It’s also something that takes a series of fairly precise steps to do well. And who wants to take the time to teach their robot how to peel a carrot?
Aloimonos predicted a future in which robots not only automate complex manufacturing, as they do now, but can take over the dull tasks of everyday life so that we humans are freed up to do the more interesting stuff.
We just need to be careful what they see on YouTube…