Sony announced today, April 19, that it signed a research agreement with Carnegie Mellon University via the former’s American subsidiary, Sony Corporation of America. The research will be based on artificial intelligence and robotics.
Initially, they will cover optimizing food preparation, cooking, and delivery. Robots can be trained on varied and complex food prepping and delivery tasks, and the training can be ‘applied to a broader set of skills and industries.’
This area of research and development will include applications where robots need to handle fragile and irregular-shaped materials. Furthermore, they will as well have to go through complex household and small business work.
One valuable training factor for the robots in this area is them being able to operate in small areas. This will serve multiple industries respectively.
Researchers will initially go with the existing manipulation robots and mobile robots. Along with that will proceed with their plans to develop new domain-specific robots. This development course will touch the base of ‘predefined food preparation items and for mobility in a limited confined space.’
The two organizations will prioritize customer needs, offering and preparing food based on personal diet. As for delivery, both home and office will be covered.
Additionally, Sony brings its Seed Acceleration Program and Sony Innovation Fund to endorse the AI and robotics-related research and development efforts and startups of Carnegie University.
Making and serving food is an immense challenge for automation, so we’re excited about the types of machines and software that might emerge as we jointly explore a variety of approaches and solutions. Both Sony and CMU aim high, so we are confident this research will produce technologies that impact robotics across a broad number of applications. – Andrew Moore, Dean of CMU’s School of Computer Science
This project will be primarily conducted in Carnegie’s School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will have the engagement of students and faculty members specializing in the areas of robotics, AI, and machine learning. Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, Corporate Executive of Sony, will be the project lead from the tech company’s end.
Dr. Kitano commented: “This project has the potential to make the vast possibilities of AI and robotics more familiar and accessible to the general public. Additionally, it could also assist those for whom daily tasks, such as food preparation, are challenging. I am very excited to be working with the talented scientists at CMU to make this vision a reality.”
Stay tuned to get more out of this partnership.
