Bakebot Robot Makes Cookies, Saves Bakers Some Work
Cookies are a pretty awesome treat, but sometimes making them from scratch can be a bit of a chore. Fortunately, there is now a robot created specifically for making cookies--although it probably isn't good enough to replace humans just yet.
Created by MIT Distributed Robotics Lab student Mario Bollini, the PR2 Bakebot loves nothing more than to bake up a batch of cookies from scratch. Bakebot loves it so much that it even gets to wear a fetching protective gown. The robot's left hand holds onto the mixing bowl, while its right hand does the hard work, mixing ingredients with a rubber spatula. Its head contains a laser scanner and sensor camera used to determine what each ingredients is, and how much mixing and stirring it needs to do.
Mario originally made Bakebot to mix all the cookie ingredients, but the bot can now identify each ingredient, place the dough onto a baking sheet, and pat the mixture into cookie shapes. Mario is currently working with other students and professors to program PR2 so it can wipe down the table and put the baking sheet in the oven.
Maybe while the team is at it, they could program Bakebot to clean up after itself; judging from the video, it's a little messy. Watch it in action below:
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