Robots with nimble hands already help us assemble cars, harvest fruits, and even disarm bombs. Now when will they be ready to assist us with another life-changing task: loading a dishwasher?
Nobody really knows. To find out, a group of roboticists is organizing the Mobile Manipulation Challenge, to take place at the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Research groups are invited to bring their robots to Anchorage, Alaska, next May to show their skills at moving around cluttered spaces and manipulating objects autonomously.
This is the third edition of the challenge. The first two were more in the format of open demonstrations. This time the tasks will be standardized. They were chosen to be complex and compelling: the robots will have to "clear up a room that has been used as a toddler's playground" (talk about clutter) and "clear a dining table and place all the dishes in a dishwasher tray."
To learn more about the challenge, I talked with Matei Ciocarlie, a researcher at Willow Garage who is helping organize the event.
See the full interview on IEEE Spectrum Automaton.