Robot Butler Can Open Doors, Talk, and Separate Oreos
From: The Tartan - 03/25/2013
By: Brooke Kuei

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Personal Robotics Lab have
developed the Home Exploring Robot Butler (HERB). "The focus is on
complicated manipulation tasks with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of
clutter," says lab director Siddhartha Srinivasa, a professor in CMU's
Robotics Institute. "We’re trying to get robots like HERB to move from the
factory floor to homes so they can perform useful tasks that a caregiver
would perform." HERB was originally developed after Nabisco approached the
institute about developing an Oreo-separating robot for an advertising
campaign. The researchers had to adapt and improve several algorithms in
order to get HERB to have the dexterity to separate an Oreo cookie from the
creme. However, these same tools could be useful in completing other tasks in
the future. "HERB can get a meal out of the fridge, microwave food, clean up
after a mess, and separate an Oreo," Srinivasa says. "The underlying
algorithms are the same across all these tasks and are even generalizable
across robots."

Read the entire article at:
http://thetartan.org/2013/3/25/scitech/robotoreo

Links:
HERB paves way for human-like household robotics
http://thetartan.org/2013/3/25/forum/oreo

OREO Separator Machine (video 3:58)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBgfpl0lcIo