This Factory Robot Learns a New Job Overnight

MIT Technology Review:  Fanuc’s robot uses a technique known as deep reinforcement learning to train itself, over time, how to learn a new task. It tries picking up objects while capturing video footage of the process. Each time it succeeds or fails, it remembers how the object looked, knowledge that is used to refine a deep learning model, or a large neural network, that controls its action. Deep learning has proved to be a powerful approach in pattern recognition over the past few years.

“After eight hours or so it gets to 90 percent accuracy or above, which is almost the same as if an expert were to program it,” explains Shohei Hido, chief research officer at Preferred Networks, a Tokyo-based company specializing in machine learning. “It works overnight; the next morning it is tuned.”... (full story)

Featured Product

Cold air to -50°F (-46°C) from your compressed air supply — with no moving parts!

Cold air to -50°F (-46°C) from your compressed air supply - with no moving parts!

A low cost, reliable, maintenance free solution to a variety of industrial spot cooling problems. Using an ordinary supply of compressed air as a power source, vortex tubes create two streams of air, one hot and one cold, with no moving parts. Vortex tubes can produce: "¢ Temperatures from -50° to +260°F (-46° to +127°C) "¢ Flow rates from 1 to 150 SCFM (28 to 4248 SLPM) "¢ Refrigeration up to 10,200 Btu/hr. (2571 Kcal/hr.) Temperatures, flows and refrigeration are adjustable over a wide range using the control valve on the hot end exhaust. EXAIR Vortex Tubes are constructed of stainless steel. The wear resistance of stainless steel, as well as its resistance to corrosion and oxidation, assures that EXAIR Vortex Tubes will provide years of reliable, maintenance-free operation. https://exair.co/184_530