What’s new: Getting robots to work in environments they’ve never seen before is tricky. Typically, researchers have to train robots with new data about every new place they encounter, which can be very time-consuming and expensive. Now, researchers have developed a set of AI models that teach robots to complete basic tasks in new environments without additional training or fine-tuning.
Achievements: Five AI models, called Robotic Utilization Models (RUMs), enable the machine to complete five distinct tasks: opening doors and drawers, and picking up tissues, bags, and cylindrical objects in unfamiliar environments with a 90 percent success rate.
The big picture: The team hopes their findings will make it quicker and easier to teach robots new skills, and help them function in areas they haven’t seen before. This approach could make it easier and cheaper to have robots in our homes in the future. Read the full article.
—Rhiannon Williams
Flu season is upon us, and with it the threat of a brand new strain of bird flu.
September is almost over. The kids are back in school, and we in the Northern Hemisphere are experiencing the joy of summer’s end. Cool temperatures, falling leaves, and the inevitable start of flu season.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older. This year, after the spread of the “bird flu” H5N1 in cattle, the CDC is urging dairy farm workers to get vaccinated in particular.
The goal is not only to protect workers from seasonal flu, but also to protect all of us from a potentially more devastating outcome: the emergence of a new form of flu that could trigger another pandemic. That hasn’t happened yet, but unfortunately it’s looking increasingly likely. Read the full article.
