Research gives robots a second chance at first impressions Cornell Chronicle

The robot you know only as a lowly cleaner may also be an expert firefighter. A robot that clumsily fumbles an object may still have life-saving skills. Baxter, a robotic deli operator, was used in preliminary research about how humans perceive robot competence. "If people are going to work together with robots, they're going to form judgments, and they're going to base decisions on those judgments," said Ross Knepper, assistant professor in Computing and Information Science. "If the collaborations are going to be efficient, people need to have accurate estimates of robots' competence."