A robot that peels vegetables in the same way that people do demonstrates a level of dexterity that could help move delicate objects along a manufacturing line. Prototype robots are often tasked with peeling vegetables to test their ability to carefully handle awkward objects. But these challenges are usually simplified, such as the vegetable being fixed in place, or only testing single fruits or vegetables, like peeling a banana. How this moment for AI will change society forever (and how it won't) Now, Pulkit Agrawal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have developed a robotic system that can rotate different types of fruit and vegetable using its fingers on one hand, while the other arm is made to peel. "These additional steps of doing rotation are something which is very straightforward to humans, we don't even think about it," says Agrawal. "But for a robot, this becomes challenging." First, the robot was taught in a simulated environment, receiving an algorithmic reward for a proper rotation and a punishment if it rotated the wrong way or not at all.

It might not look that special, but the robot above is, according to a new measure, the most dexterous one ever created. Among other tricks, it could sort through your junk drawer with unrivaled speed and skill. The key to its dexterity is not in its mechanical grippers but in its brain. The robot uses software called Dex-Net to determine how to pick up even odd-looking objects with incredible efficiency. The new robot was built by Ken Goldberg, a professor at UC Berkeley, and one of his graduate students, Jeff Mahler. Goldberg will demonstrate the latest version of it at EmTech Digital, an event in San Francisco organized by MIT Technology Review and dedicated to artificial intelligence.