6 ms·

Chopstick robot handle boxes with ease

73 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

dpflan 3y ago
Interesting, would adding a 3rd stick actual make this more viable?
- elromulous 3y ago
  As long as you don't call it a claw/gripper. /s
TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
I can see smaller versions of these mounted on the side or back of garbage trucks someday.
- all2 3y ago
  Our local trash service already has pneumatic arms that grab and dump the trash cans. [0] is one of many offerings. [0] https://www.heil.com/bodies/liberty-automated-sideload-garbage-trucks/ https://www.heil.com/bodies/liberty-automated-sideload-garba...
  - throwaway14356 3y ago
    we use to have those but now there are underground containers. My card can open the one in my street and 2 around the corner. If one is full sooner than planned there is a phone number and they usually come pull it out of the ground in an hour, sometimes after 2 days. Happens every 2 year or so. Wonderful system, no garbage around the house.
- freeopinion 3y ago
  Garbage trucks have long been a marvel to me. I used to wince every time I heard the dumpster outside my office get emptied. Every single time the operator would lift and tilt the dumpster, then smash it at least six times to make sure everything shook out. The dumpsters and the trucks had to withstand this beating over and over. The truck especially amazed me. Hundreds of pounds hanging on a cantilevered arm smashing down repeatedly--then moving onto the next dumpster! You just have to take whatever crazy spec you were given for the mechanical parts and then multiply that by 100 to engineer anything that could survive a single day.
  - pard68 3y ago
    Hydraulics are extraordinary.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
robocat 3y ago
Why not use flat paddles instead? For better friction hold and less crushing. Also single arm/paddle support like an open hand for light boxes? Closest I could find: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DQ9c1cFmNg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DQ9c1cFmNg In the second video of the article the first box picked is crushed by the chopsticks.
- Mtinie 3y ago
  “In the second video of the article the first box picked is crushed by the chopsticks.” Addressed a bit farther into the article, which I was thankful for because I had the same initial reaction: “ You may have noticed that the boxes in the videos are pretty beat up. That’s because the robot has been practicing with those boxes for months, but Dextrous is mindful of the fact that care is necessary, says Drumwright. ‘One of the things that we were worried about from the very beginning was, how do we do this in a gentle way? But our newest version of the robot has the sensitivity to be very gentle with the boxes.’”
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - throwaway14356 3y ago
    i was more confused by the tiny box not fitting on the conveyor. Lots of smart choices to choose from besides from cutting the recording???
- robocat 3y ago
  Better example of paddles: https://youtu.be/XPfWvqlEJ48?t=0m48s https://youtu.be/XPfWvqlEJ48?t=0m48s https://www.universal-robots.com/plus/products/onrobot/2fgp20/ https://www.universal-robots.com/plus/products/onrobot/2fgp2... The same paddle head can connect to multiple different arms and has suckers for sheets too. I'm still looking for a good existing example of horizontal paddles with rotating wrist that competes with the chopstick idea. Most examples are restricted to known geometry, but I still think the chopsticks would be beaten by a pair of paddles every time (presuming similar control software). Here's another palletizing arm and grippers combo: https://youtu.be/goivYfJ9DE8 https://youtu.be/goivYfJ9DE8 I mean - imagine tying those chopsticks to your forearms and trying to manipulate boxes - it would be hard enough for a human. Much easier if tied two rubberised rackets to forearms?!
tmnvix 3y ago
I wonder if this might be more useful if it were to use the 'chopsticks' to pull the boxes onto a centrally mounted tray that slides back so that the boxes can then be pushed off the other side - thereby keeping boxes upright.
- all2 3y ago
  I was thinking something similar. Have a conveyor below the gantries that you can drop boxes onto/into, and that conveyor moves the box to the desired location behind the picker. This doesn't really work when there is no conveyor to drop boxes onto, though.
pard68 3y ago
Great until it encounters the fabled "This Side Up" box.
- Groxx 3y ago
  Yeah, I was surprised that it was flipping all of them. Certainly that gives you more reach for cheaper, but it feels like a moving conveyor that it just backs onto might pay for itself in better speed and versatility... But eh. Selling both is probably an obvious choice.
- dylan604 3y ago
  It's not like your UPS/FedEx/Amazon driver cares either though
- teekert 3y ago
  Came here to say this. I found it a bit jarring to look at actually...
Tagbert 3y ago
Ah, "Chopstick robot handle(s) boxes with ease." That was hard to parse. I was wondering how a "robot handle" would box with ease.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  I definitely wouldn't want to box with a chopstick-fisted robot; that's like coming with bare hands to a sabre fight.
ezconnect 3y ago
With complete disregard on right side up of packages.
scoot 3y ago
Looks like a high school science fair project (with a budget)…
paul80808 3y ago
I like this shankbot aka Mr. Stabby.
Animats 3y ago
Yes, trying to lift large boxes with narrow sticks seems iffy. It's a rather bulky machine for what it does. Here's a commercially successful robot for the same job.[1][2] Universal Robots has some nice machinery. They've succeeded where Rod Brooks' Rethink Robotics failed. No cute display with facial expressions, but better mechanical engineering and short payback times. Also, UR's machines are safe around humans. The chopstick robot looks too dangerous to run outside a cage. While AI for controlling robots in unstructured situations still isn't that great, the mechanical and electrical parts work much better. Motors and motor controllers are great and not too expensive. Sensors are widely available and pretty good. Compensation for flexing under load has made much progress, and robots no longer need to be as rigid as a milling machine. A decade or two ago, if you tried to do anything with robots, you spent most of your effort on those issues. (Been there, done that.) We're now past that. Vision is far enough along that semi-structured jobs work pretty well. Pick up known object from bin, place in machine, get out of the way while machine does its thing, remove object from machine, put in output bin - that covers a lot of factory work. Especially with vision systems smart enough to notice that something is gone wrong, stop, and call for help. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QuPJnDUFi8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QuPJnDUFi8 [2] https://www.universal-robots.com/ https://www.universal-robots.com/
- lwhi 3y ago
  Looks nice and it's impressive, but 1700 boxes in one day seems far less efficient though?
  - Animats 3y ago
    That's the price of working in the same envelope as humans. Can't build up too much kinetic energy.
- rob74 3y ago
  Even better (or worse): trying to lift heavy boxes with narrow sticks by holding the box from the sides - no idea what force has to be exerted by the robot to keep the box from slipping...
lurquer 3y ago
a couple of minimum wage teenagers could do it faster, better, cheaper, and safer.
chriscjcj 3y ago
Pretty cool as long as you're okay with your boxes being flipped upside down.
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  I think any of the standard services will place your boxes in whatever orientation they want.
robomartin 3y ago
Fantastic! So long as you are moving empty boxes and don't care about stabbing people to death every 42.7 days. I am sure OSHA will love it. What really bothers me is the million dollar grant they got. Complete and utter waste of taxpayer money. Unbelievable. Most of us have to make real products to earn that kind of money.
aszantu 3y ago
waiting for the ai to figure out it can just stab and move, lol
- jareklupinski 3y ago
  "We prompted the AI to 'Take care of the customers', but didn't realize it had been trained on Twilight Zone re-runs."
elzbardico 3y ago
I think that automation is great, but we will definitely need some enlightened form of socialism to run along with it if we want a minimally decent society.

73 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

dpflan 3y ago

Interesting, would adding a 3rd stick actual make this more viable?

elromulous 3y ago
As long as you don't call it a claw/gripper. /s

TedDoesntTalk 3y ago

I can see smaller versions of these mounted on the side or back of garbage trucks someday.

all2 3y ago
Our local trash service already has pneumatic arms that grab and dump the trash cans. [0] is one of many offerings. [0] https://www.heil.com/bodies/liberty-automated-sideload-garbage-trucks/ https://www.heil.com/bodies/liberty-automated-sideload-garba...
- throwaway14356 3y ago
  we use to have those but now there are underground containers. My card can open the one in my street and 2 around the corner. If one is full sooner than planned there is a phone number and they usually come pull it out of the ground in an hour, sometimes after 2 days. Happens every 2 year or so. Wonderful system, no garbage around the house.
freeopinion 3y ago
Garbage trucks have long been a marvel to me. I used to wince every time I heard the dumpster outside my office get emptied. Every single time the operator would lift and tilt the dumpster, then smash it at least six times to make sure everything shook out. The dumpsters and the trucks had to withstand this beating over and over. The truck especially amazed me. Hundreds of pounds hanging on a cantilevered arm smashing down repeatedly--then moving onto the next dumpster! You just have to take whatever crazy spec you were given for the mechanical parts and then multiply that by 100 to engineer anything that could survive a single day.
- pard68 3y ago
  Hydraulics are extraordinary.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

robocat 3y ago

Why not use flat paddles instead? For better friction hold and less crushing. Also single arm/paddle support like an open hand for light boxes? Closest I could find: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DQ9c1cFmNg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DQ9c1cFmNg In the second video of the article the first box picked is crushed by the chopsticks.

Mtinie 3y ago
“In the second video of the article the first box picked is crushed by the chopsticks.” Addressed a bit farther into the article, which I was thankful for because I had the same initial reaction: “ You may have noticed that the boxes in the videos are pretty beat up. That’s because the robot has been practicing with those boxes for months, but Dextrous is mindful of the fact that care is necessary, says Drumwright. ‘One of the things that we were worried about from the very beginning was, how do we do this in a gentle way? But our newest version of the robot has the sensitivity to be very gentle with the boxes.’”
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway14356 3y ago
  i was more confused by the tiny box not fitting on the conveyor. Lots of smart choices to choose from besides from cutting the recording???
robocat 3y ago
Better example of paddles: https://youtu.be/XPfWvqlEJ48?t=0m48s https://youtu.be/XPfWvqlEJ48?t=0m48s https://www.universal-robots.com/plus/products/onrobot/2fgp20/ https://www.universal-robots.com/plus/products/onrobot/2fgp2... The same paddle head can connect to multiple different arms and has suckers for sheets too. I'm still looking for a good existing example of horizontal paddles with rotating wrist that competes with the chopstick idea. Most examples are restricted to known geometry, but I still think the chopsticks would be beaten by a pair of paddles every time (presuming similar control software). Here's another palletizing arm and grippers combo: https://youtu.be/goivYfJ9DE8 https://youtu.be/goivYfJ9DE8 I mean - imagine tying those chopsticks to your forearms and trying to manipulate boxes - it would be hard enough for a human. Much easier if tied two rubberised rackets to forearms?!

tmnvix 3y ago

I wonder if this might be more useful if it were to use the 'chopsticks' to pull the boxes onto a centrally mounted tray that slides back so that the boxes can then be pushed off the other side - thereby keeping boxes upright.

all2 3y ago
I was thinking something similar. Have a conveyor below the gantries that you can drop boxes onto/into, and that conveyor moves the box to the desired location behind the picker. This doesn't really work when there is no conveyor to drop boxes onto, though.

pard68 3y ago

Great until it encounters the fabled "This Side Up" box.

Groxx 3y ago
Yeah, I was surprised that it was flipping all of them. Certainly that gives you more reach for cheaper, but it feels like a moving conveyor that it just backs onto might pay for itself in better speed and versatility... But eh. Selling both is probably an obvious choice.
dylan604 3y ago
It's not like your UPS/FedEx/Amazon driver cares either though
teekert 3y ago
Came here to say this. I found it a bit jarring to look at actually...

Tagbert 3y ago

Ah, "Chopstick robot handle(s) boxes with ease." That was hard to parse. I was wondering how a "robot handle" would box with ease.

TeMPOraL 3y ago
I definitely wouldn't want to box with a chopstick-fisted robot; that's like coming with bare hands to a sabre fight.

ezconnect 3y ago

With complete disregard on right side up of packages.

scoot 3y ago

Looks like a high school science fair project (with a budget)…

paul80808 3y ago

I like this shankbot aka Mr. Stabby.

Animats 3y ago

Yes, trying to lift large boxes with narrow sticks seems iffy. It's a rather bulky machine for what it does. Here's a commercially successful robot for the same job.[1][2] Universal Robots has some nice machinery. They've succeeded where Rod Brooks' Rethink Robotics failed. No cute display with facial expressions, but better mechanical engineering and short payback times. Also, UR's machines are safe around humans. The chopstick robot looks too dangerous to run outside a cage. While AI for controlling robots in unstructured situations still isn't that great, the mechanical and electrical parts work much better. Motors and motor controllers are great and not too expensive. Sensors are widely available and pretty good. Compensation for flexing under load has made much progress, and robots no longer need to be as rigid as a milling machine. A decade or two ago, if you tried to do anything with robots, you spent most of your effort on those issues. (Been there, done that.) We're now past that. Vision is far enough along that semi-structured jobs work pretty well. Pick up known object from bin, place in machine, get out of the way while machine does its thing, remove object from machine, put in output bin - that covers a lot of factory work. Especially with vision systems smart enough to notice that something is gone wrong, stop, and call for help. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QuPJnDUFi8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QuPJnDUFi8 [2] https://www.universal-robots.com/ https://www.universal-robots.com/

lwhi 3y ago
Looks nice and it's impressive, but 1700 boxes in one day seems far less efficient though?
- Animats 3y ago
  That's the price of working in the same envelope as humans. Can't build up too much kinetic energy.
rob74 3y ago
Even better (or worse): trying to lift heavy boxes with narrow sticks by holding the box from the sides - no idea what force has to be exerted by the robot to keep the box from slipping...

lurquer 3y ago

a couple of minimum wage teenagers could do it faster, better, cheaper, and safer.

chriscjcj 3y ago

Pretty cool as long as you're okay with your boxes being flipped upside down.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago
I think any of the standard services will place your boxes in whatever orientation they want.

robomartin 3y ago

Fantastic! So long as you are moving empty boxes and don't care about stabbing people to death every 42.7 days. I am sure OSHA will love it. What really bothers me is the million dollar grant they got. Complete and utter waste of taxpayer money. Unbelievable. Most of us have to make real products to earn that kind of money.

aszantu 3y ago

waiting for the ai to figure out it can just stab and move, lol

jareklupinski 3y ago
"We prompted the AI to 'Take care of the customers', but didn't realize it had been trained on Twilight Zone re-runs."

elzbardico 3y ago

I think that automation is great, but we will definitely need some enlightened form of socialism to run along with it if we want a minimally decent society.