Robotic Butler HERB Separates Your Oreos

Robotic butler Herb separates your Oreos! A group at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute are working on an intelligent and  humorous robot butler named HERB that could one day prepare all of your meals  and possibly tell you in a British accent what fork to use. HERB  stands for Home Exploring [easyazon-link asin=”B0017OFRCY” locale=”us”] Robotic [/easyazon-link] Butler and  as of now it resembles the Mars rover.

It must be hard living as a three fingered robot in complicated setting such as a kitchen, filled with knobs sensors knives and [easyazon-link asin=”B000LUC9DK” locale=”us”] OREOS [/easyazon-link]!   However, it  appears that HERB  is managing quite well. HERB is equipped with cameras and  sensors that help it interprets its visual surroundings.

Nabisco’s ‘Cookie vs. Creme’ challenge to build an Oreo-separating machine sent HERB into quite a tizzy at first. It crushes, crumbles, stabs and  smashes quite a few cookies before it performs a very successful cookie vs. cream separation.  Bravo HERB… just remember it\’s all in the wrist!

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS:

For a robotic butler to really be effective and safe they will need to have temperature and sensitivity controlled responsive  “hands and fingertips.”  Home service robots will need the ability to respond to an increase or decrease in temperature, sharpness and interpret this information for the safety of  the humans it will be serving.  We don\’t want HERB handing grandma a scalding hot plate of cookies nor do we want it poking her with a knife to wake her up!

In the near future we could see robotic butlers or a fleet of robotic cleaning service bots in our homes. How will this alter the millions of home service providers that are currently working in the system now?  As you can imagine automation is not just a corporate disruptor. Automation will  change the lives of every person on this planet in one way or another. The good news is, someone will need to maintain and repair these home service bots.