Ken Goldberg's Knot Untying Robots Featured in New Scientist
Matthew Sparkes features the work from Ken Goldberg's lab in "Robot unties knotted cables but can't pick them up off the floor" for the New Scientist.
From the article:
Ken Goldberg at the University of California, Berkeley, says his team’s work on the robot was inspired by untidy cables getting in the way in the laboratory, which made him think about how a robot would have to work to keep them tucked away. The problem requires dextrous mechanical arms, but also an understanding of knot theory, he says.
“There’s a beautiful mathematical body of theory out there on knots, and it’s very abstract. It generally abstracts the problem into graphs and graphical structures,” says Goldberg. “We applied certain aspects of that. Cables are difficult to perceive, even with the best of cameras and techniques, and they’re also difficult to manipulate because of their flexibility and their small size and their tendency to spring out and do things that are very unpredictable.
Read the full article and watch the video here!