Recognizing the right tool for the job

A*STAR researchers working with colleagues in Japan have developed a method by which robots can automatically recognize an object as a potential tool and use it, despite never having seen it before. For humans, the ability to recognize and use tools is almost instinctive. There are also many examples in which tool use seems hardwired into the brain of animals: some birds and primates use sticks or stones to obtain food, for example. One proposed reason for this neurologically embedded ability to use tools is that the animal's brain perceives the external object as an extension of its own body. Inspired by this idea, Keng Peng Tee and his colleagues from the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research, along with Gowrishankar Ganesh from the CNRS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory located in Tsukuba, Japan developed an algorithm that enables robots to recognize, and immediately use tools that they have never seen before.