Engineers working on Google's DeepMind project have announced the development of two new AI-based robot systems. One called ALOHA Unleashed was developed to advance the science of bi-arm manipulation. The other, called DemoStart, was developed to advance the capabilities of robot hands that have multiple fingers, joints, or sensors.

Details for ALOHA Unleashed have been posted on the DeepMind site and also on GitHub. Details for DemoStart have been posted on the arXiv preprint server.

As the research team notes, most robot hands developed to pick up and move objects generally act alone—they have no second hand to help them. In this new effort, the research team used AI technology to teach a robot to use both of its hands in conjunction to complete a "difficult" task, such as tying a shoe. The result is ALOHA Unleashed.

Credit: Google

As the team also notes, the new system builds on ALOHA 2 and the ALOHA platform, which was developed at Stanford University for use in tele-operating applications. The new system improves dexterity and also allows two robot hands to become "aware" of one another as they work together on a common problem.

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