Dextrous Assembler Robot Working with Embodied Intelligence
The project aims at developing robotic technology that will be able to assemble objects from their constituent parts. The sequence of operations needed, during the assembly process, will be provided by an executive process in the robotic agent. The executive process will accommodate a wide spectrum of requirements and constraints of the general assembly problem. On the one end of the spectrum, it will allow for CAD-CAM systems, used in industrial manufacturing, to provide the detailed sequence of instructions while at the other end it will support stand-alone operation in cases where external knowledge cannot be provided. In this mode the robot will be able to use previous knowledge of tools and assembly strategies, acquired by "playing" with the tools and the objects in question and using mental simulation capabilities in order to "imagine" the outcome of decisions during the assembly process. In addition to trial and error learning mode the robot will also support learning by observation of another agent assembling the same object. Finally a third learning mode will be supported where a series of snapshots of the object-to-be-assembled will be provided and from these the robot will discover by itself the necessary sequence through reasoning