Robot overcomes uncertainty to retrieve buried objects

MIT researchers previously demonstrated a robotic arm that combines visual information and radio frequency (RF) signals to find hidden objects that were tagged with RFID tags (which reflect signals sent by an antenna). Building off that work, they have now developed a new system that can efficiently retrieve any object buried in a pile. As long as some items in the pile have RFID tags, the target item does not need to be tagged for the system to recover it. The algorithms behind the system, known as FuseBot, reason about the probable location and orientation of objects under the pile. Then FuseBot finds the most efficient way to remove obstructing objects and extract the target item.