“Someone could put something new on a desk or move something in the break room or add an extra dish to the sink. “In environments where people live and work, there’s always going to be uncertainty,” says Andrew SaLoutos, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Going forward, the researchers plan to program more complex reflexes to enable nimble, adaptable machines that can work with and among humans in ever-changing settings. For now, the system is a proof of concept and provides a general organizational structure for embedding reflexes into a robotic system. The new design is the first to incorporate reflexes into a robotic planning architecture. It’s able to carry out these “last centimeter” adjustments (a riff on the “last mile” delivery problem) without engaging a higher-level planner, much like how a person might fumble in the dark for a bedside glass without much conscious thought.

Rather than start from scratch after a failed attempt, the team’s robot adapts in the moment to reflexively roll, palm, or pinch an object to get a better hold. Looking to give robots a more nimble, human-like touch, MIT engineers have now developed a gripper that grasps by reflex. If a gripper misses its mark, it’s back to the starting point, where the controller must map out a new plan.

The slow and deliberate approach of the arcade claw is similar to state-of-the-art pick-and-place robots, which use high-level planners to process visual images and plan out a series of moves to grab for an object. If the claw misses its target, she’ll have to start from scratch for another chance at a prize. But once she presses the joystick button, it’s a game of wait-and-see. When manipulating an arcade claw, a player can plan all she wants.

Leap by Jodi Lundgren