Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

B21 Kitchen Robot Shares Cooking Tips With Other Bots

The B21 kitchen robot is a robotic chef with several advanced features; it can find its way around a specially equipped kitchen using the same tools you do and it can share what it knows with other robots.


(B21 kitchen robot)

The robot chef was developed at the Technical University of Munich; Michael Beetz is the team leader for development. Rather than learning opjects by shape (which is more difficult) it requires that tags using RFID technology be attached to each item. Some products are manufactured with embedded RFID tags anyway.

"If you want to interpret and understand everyday activities using vision data, it's very complicated, error-prone, and resource intensive," says Beetz. "If you do it with RFID tags, there is very little sensor information, but it's highly correlated with the activities you are performing.”

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this robot is that, once it learns how to use an object, it can share this knowledge with other robots.


(B21 kitchen robot visualization)

This capability has been illustrated in mainstream science fiction movies. In the 2003 film I, Robot, the most advanced robots, the NS5's, had a special feature: additional software and instructions could be downloaded wirelessly to individual robots. NS5's receiving a download show a red glow in the chest cavity.


(Middle NS5 Robot Gets A Download)

In his 1943 short story Robinc, Anthony Boucher goes the other way. Rather than teaching a robot to use tools, why not create a robot that is the tool:

"Half your time in cooking is wasted raching around for what you need next. We can build in a lot of that stuff. For instance, one tentacle can be a registering thermometer. tapering to a find point - stick it in a roast and - One can end in a broad spoon for stirring - heat resistant, of course.
(Read more about Boucher's robot chef)

Read more at Robot chef gets a boost from wireless kitchen; thanks to Moira for finding the story and the video.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/15/2008)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Index of related articles:

Active Tag (Active RFID Tag)
Amplitude Modulation (AM)
Antenna (RFID Tag Antenna)
Anti-collision
Back scatter (RFID back scatter)
Bi-directional
Contactless smart card
Chipless RFID tag
Contactless Credit Cards
Closed Systems (or Closed Loop Systems)
Code plate (RFID code plate)
Continuous Wave (CM)
Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS)
Electronic Product Code (EPC)
Error Correcting Code (ECC)
Error Correcting Mode
Error Correcting Protocol
Excite
Factory Programming
Field Programming
Frequency Modulation (FM)
Frequency Shift Keyed Modulation (FSKM)
Frequency Hopping
Harvest
Inductive Coupling
Modulation
Passive RFID Tag (or Passive Tag)
Phase Modulation (PM)
Pulse Duration
RF Fibers
RFID Reader
RFID Tag Collision
RFID tag
Smart label (RFID Smart Label)
RFID Reader Collision
Smart cards
Transponder for RFID

Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")

PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers
'My fingers are not that sensitive...' - Ray Cummings, 1931.

Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent (1934)

Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.

Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...' HG Wells, 1898.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'

Secret Kill Switch Found In Yutong Buses
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'

Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'

Grok Scores Best In Psychological Tests
'Try to find out how he ticks...'

PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers
'My fingers are not that sensitive...'

Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'

The Desert Ship Sailed In Imagination
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.'

The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story
'Betty's slapdash style.'

Thermostabilized Wet Meat Product (NASA Prototype)
There are no orbiting Michelin stars. Yet.

Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'

India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.'

Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'

Is It Time To Forbid Human Driving?
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'

Replace The Smartphone With A Connected Edge Node For AI Inference
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'

Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'

Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.