We spend a lot of time trying to train people to bring us drinks – our lady friends, our kids…even our dogs. Who has time to get a beer out of the fridge when there are so many more important things to do, right? That’s why we were pumped to hear about the latest invention from Cornell University: robot beer slaves.
This robot, programmed by Cornell University’s Personal Robotics Lab, was created to anticipate human actions and assist in tasks…like bringing the man of the house a cold one. It has a Microsoft Kinect 3-D Camera that allows the robot to visualize locations of important objects, like an empty pint glass. Programmers also built a ton of cool technical stuff, giving the robot the ability to evaluate moves in a sequence and act accordingly.
The robot isn’t always totally accurate; while testing their ability to correctly anticipate a person’s next move, it was on the money between 57 and 82 percent of the time. Some of the tasks were long and complex, but if we had one of these robots, we’d only have one task: if our glass is empty, fill it with beer.
They’re not available for in-home use… yet. We’re going to start saving up now, and until then we’ll have to suck it up and get our own beer.