Latest Advances in Robot Dexterity

Research | Published: 12 September 2024 |Authors: Robotics Team

Two new AI systems, ALOHA Unleashed and DemoStart, help robots learn to perform complex tasks that require dexterous movement

People perform many tasks on a daily basis, like tying shoelaces or tightening a screw. But for robots, learning these highly-dexterous tasks is incredibly difficult to get right. To make robots more useful in people’s lives, they need to get better at making contact with physical objects in dynamic environments.

Today, we introduce two new papers featuring our latest artificial intelligence (AI) advances in robot dexterity research: ALOHA Unleashed which helps robots learn to perform complex and novel two-armed manipulation tasks; and DemoStart which uses simulations to improve real-world performance on a multi-fingered robotic hand.

By helping robots learn from human demonstrations and translate images to action, these systems are paving the way for robots that can perform a wide variety of helpful tasks.

Improving imitation learning with two robotic arms

Until now, most advanced AI robots have only been able to pick up and place objects using a single arm. In our new paper, we present ALOHA Unleashed, which achieves a high level of dexterity in bi-arm manipulation. With this new method, our robot learned to tie a shoelace, hang a shirt, repair another robot, insert a gear and even clean a kitchen.

The future of robot dexterity

Robotics is a unique area of AI research that shows how well our approaches work in the real world. For example, a large language model could tell you how to tighten a bolt or tie your shoes, but even if it was embodied in a robot, it wouldn’t be able to perform those tasks itself.

One day, AI robots will help people with all kinds of tasks at home, in the workplace and more. Dexterity research, including the efficient and general learning approaches we’ve described today, will help make that future possible.

We still have a long way to go before robots can grasp and handle objects with the ease and precision of people, but we’re making significant progress, and each groundbreaking innovation is another step in the right direction.