A team of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a new robot that can peel vegetables as well as perform an assortment of other kitchen tasks.

The researchers explained that the dexterous manipulation system, which is comprised of an Allegro hand mounted on a Franka robot arm, uses its finger to rotate fruits and vegetables while another Franka robot arm uses its gripper to grasp a peeler for peeling.

Source: MITSource: MIT

To accomplish this, the MIT researchers focused on constrained dexterous manipulation for food peeling, which is a task that presents an assortment of constraints on the reorientation controller, including the requirement for the hand to securely hold the object following reorientation for peeling.

“We propose a simple system for learning a reorientation controller that facilitates the subsequent peeling task,” explained the researchers.

To mimic how humans peel potatoes, for instance, the system was taught to grasp the potato in one hand and use the second hand to actuate a peeler to remove the potato’s skin. Once the first side of the potato is peeled, it is rotated while being held in the hand and subsequently peeled again and the sequence of rotating and peeling continues until all of the potato’s skin is removed.

The researchers added that the robotic system can re-orient different vegetables using the Allegro hand so that the skin can be peeled using another manipulator. Further, the reorientation controller for the Allegro hand is taught via reinforcement learning, while the peeling is conducted via teleoperation.

Researchers demonstrated the process of reorienting and peeling a melon, a sweet potato and a squash.

For more on the vegetable-peeling robot, watch the accompanying video, which appears courtesy of MIT.

To contact the author of this article, email mdonlon@globalspec.com