Apparatus, systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for automatic robot perception programming by imitation learning are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a percept mapper to identify a first percept and a second percept from data gathered from a demonstration of a task and an entropy encoder to calculate a first saliency of the first percept and a second saliency of the second percept. The example apparatus also includes a trajectory mapper to map a trajectory based on the first percept and the second percept, the first percept skewed based on the first saliency, the second percept skewed based on the second saliency. In addition, the example apparatus includes a probabilistic encoder to determine a plurality of variations of the trajectory and create a collection of trajectories including the trajectory and the variations of the trajectory. The example apparatus also includes an assemble network to imitate an action based on a first simulated signal from a first neural network of a first modality and a second simulated signal from a second neural network of a second modality, the action representative of a perceptual skill.

Disclosed herein is a handheld device for training at least one movement and at least one activity of a machine. The handheld device may include a handle, an input unit configured to input activation information for activating the training of the machine, an output unit configured to output the activation information for activating the training of the machine to a device external to the handheld device, and a coupling structure for releasably coupling an interchangeable attachment configured according to the at least one activity.

A method of training a robot system for manipulation of objects, the robot system being able to perform a set of skills, wherein each skill is learned as a skill model, the method comprising: receiving physical input from a human trainer, regarding the skill to be learned by the robot; determining for the skill model a set of task parameters including determining for each task parameter of the set of task parameters if a task parameter is an attached task parameter, which is related to an object being part of said kinesthetic demonstration or if a task parameter is a free task parameter, which is not related to a physical object; obtaining data for each task parameter of the set of task parameters from the set of kinesthetic demonstrations, and training the skill model with the set of task parameters and the data obtained for each task parameter.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to methods, computer program products, and computer systems of a robotic apparatus with robotic instructions replicating a food preparation recipe. In one embodiment, a robotic control platform, comprises one or more sensors; a mechanical robotic structure including one or more end effectors, and one or more robotic arms; an electronic library database of minimanipulations; a robotic planning module configured for real-time planning and adjustment based at least in part on the sensor data received from the one or more sensors in an electronic multi-stage process file, the electronic multi-stage process recipe file including a sequence of minimanipulations and associated timing data; a robotic interpreter module configured for reading the minimanipulation steps from the minimanipulation library and converting to a machine code; and a robotic execution module configured for executing the minimanipulation steps by the robotic platform to accomplish a functional result.

Utilizing an initial set of offline positive-only robotic demonstration data for pre-training an actor network and a critic network for robotic control, followed by further training of the networks based on online robotic episodes that utilize the network(s). Implementations enable the actor network to be effectively pre-trained, while mitigating occurrences of and/or the extent of forgetting when further trained based on episode data. Implementations additionally or alternatively enable the actor network to be trained to a given degree of effectiveness in fewer training steps. In various implementations, one or more adaptation techniques are utilized in performing the robotic episodes and/or in performing the robotic training. The adaptation techniques can each, individually, result in one or more corresponding advantages and, when used in any combination, the corresponding advantages can accumulate. The adaptation techniques include Positive Sample Filtering, Adaptive Exploration, Using Max Q Values, and Using the Actor in CEM.

A computer-implemented method comprising, receiving data representing a successful trajectory for an insertion task using a robot to insert a connector into a receptacle, performing a parameter optimization process for the robot to perform the insertion task. This parameter optimization includes defining an objective function that measures a similarity of a current trajectory generated with a current set of parameters to the successful trajectory and repeatedly modifying the current set of parameters and evaluating the modified set of parameters according to the objective function until generating a final set of parameters.

A computer-implemented method for performing few-shot imitation is disclosed. The method comprises obtaining at least one set of training data, wherein each set of training data is associated with a task and comprises (i) one of samples of rewards and a reward function, (ii) one of samples of state transitions and a transition distribution, and (iii) a set of first demonstrations, training a policy network embodied in an agent using reinforcement learning by inputting at least one set of first demonstrations of the at least one set of training data into the policy network, and by maximizing a risk measure or an average return over the at least one set of first demonstrations of the at least one set of training data based on respective one or more reward functions or respective samples of rewards, obtaining a set of second demonstrations associated with a new task, and inputting the set of second demonstrations and an observation of a state into the trained policy network for performing the new task.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to methods, computer program products, and computer systems of a robotic apparatus with robotic instructions replicating a food preparation recipe. In one embodiment, a robotic control platform, comprises one or more sensors; a mechanical robotic structure including one or more end effectors, and one or more robotic arms; an electronic library database of minimanipulations; a robotic planning module configured for real-time planning and adjustment based at least in part on the sensor data received from the one or more sensors in an electronic multi-stage process file, the electronic multi-stage process recipe file including a sequence of minimanipulations and associated timing data; a robotic interpreter module configured for reading the minimanipulation steps from the minimanipulation library and converting to a machine code; and a robotic execution module configured for executing the minimanipulation steps by the robotic platform to accomplish a functional result.

A sensor is attached to a cooling and warming box accommodating a cooling agent. A server device manages a transportation company that requests transportation of the cooling and warming box. The server device wirelessly receives box information indicating a detection result from the sensor. The server device receives replacement information of the cooling and warming agent accommodated in the cooling and warming box from a freezing center. The server device sends the box information and the replacement information received wirelessly to the managed transportation company.

A robot teaching device includes: an image acquisition device configured to acquire, as a moving image, a distance image representing distance information of an imaging object, or a two-dimensional image of the imaging object; a trajectory detection section configured to detect a movement trajectory of an operator's hand depicted as the imaging object in the moving image by using the moving image; an identification section configured to identify whether the detected movement trajectory represents a linear movement or a rotational movement; and a command generation section configured to output a command for translating a predetermined movable part of the robot based on the movement trajectory when the movement trajectory is identified as representing a linear movement, and to output a command for rotating the predetermined movable part based on the movement trajectory when the movement trajectory is identified as representing a rotational movement.