Robots are good at a few simple things. They can lift and carry huge objects, fly around like dragonflies, and murder our families while we watch, their cold circuits flitting with nascent feelings of remorse and anger. But they can’t stack rocks very well.
This is because rocks are all different. However, imagine a situation when a robotic arm needs to move rubble or build a foundation for a house. Knowing how to manage heavy boulders and tiny pebbles would be a valuable skill. Researchers at ETH Zurich have unveiled such a robot in their new project, “Autonomous Robotic Stone Stacking with Online next Best Object Target Pose Planning.