Teaching Robots to Play Before Putting Them to Work – Innovation Excellence

Recently I had the opportunity to attend Siemens ConneCTs 2018 in Princeton, New Jersey, an event billed as a science fair for adults with a theme this year of AI & the Rise of Autonomous Systems. Dr. Kurt Bettenhausen, the Senior Vice President of Corporate Technology for Siemens US, opened the event and introduced a future of manufacturing automation challenge they were embarking upon with Princeton University. At the core of the challenge is a pair of robot arms developed by researchers at Siemens that, with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, can manufacture products without having to be programmed. The robot's arms autonomously divide tasks and work together as one and have the ability to detect when the work product has shifted out of the expected position and to adjust the performance of subsequent manufacturing steps. To help advance the research and the technology towards increased capabilities and commercial application, Siemens has tasked Princeton with a test case that's a little more fun than your typical proof of concept.