Robots can leap higher and land securely with the aid of generative AI.
MIT CSAIL researchers combined GenAI and a physics simulation engine to refine robot designs. The result: a machine that out-jumped a robot designed by humans.
The usage of diffusion models, such as OpenAI's DALL-E, to generate ideas for new designs is growing in popularity. These systems can be instructed by humans to produce an image, a movie, or an improved plan, and they will return with concepts they had not before thought of.
However, did you know that advances in the development of functional robots are also being made by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models? Structures and the systems that govern them have been created from scratch using recent diffusion-based techniques. These models are capable of creating new designs and simulating them before they are manufactured, either with or without user input.
A new approach from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (CSAIL) applies this generative know-how toward improving
humans’ robotic designs. Users can draft a 3D model of a robot and
specify which parts they’d like to see a diffusion model modify,
providing its dimensions beforehand. GenAI then brainstorms the optimal
shape for these areas and tests its ideas in simulation. When the system
finds the right design, you can save and then fabricate a working,
real-world robot with a 3D printer, without requiring additional tweaks.
The
researchers used this approach to create a robot that leaps up an
average of roughly 2 feet, or 41 percent higher than a similar machine
they created on their own. The machines are nearly identical in
appearance: They’re both made of a type of plastic called polylactic
acid, and while they initially appear flat, they spring up into a
diamond shape when a motor pulls on the cord attached to them. So what
exactly did AI do differently?
A closer look reveals that the
AI-generated linkages are curved, and resemble thick drumsticks (the
musical instrument drummers use), whereas the standard robot’s
connecting parts are straight and rectangular.