Cornell University engineers have taught a robot to work in
a mock-supermarket checkout line, modifying a Baxter robot from Rethink
Robotics in Boston to “coactively learn” from humans and make adjustments while
an action is in progress.
“We give the robot a lot of flexibility in learning,” said
Ashutosh Saxena, assistant professor of computer science. “The robot can learn
from corrective human feedback in order to plan its actions that are suitable
to the environment and the objects present.”