Scientists have created an algorithm that enables robots to ask intelligent questions when they are confused to help them get better at fetching objects.
This is an important task for future robot assistants.
The algorithm developed by researchers at Brown University in the US enables a robot to quantify how certain it is about what a user wants.
When its certainty is high, the robot will simply hand over the object as requested.
When it is not so certain, the robot makes its best guess about what the person wants, then asks for confirmation by hovering its gripper over the object and asking.
One of the important features of the system is that the robot does not ask questions with every interaction, it asks intelligently.
Supposing a user asks for a wrench and there are two wrenches on a table. If the user tells the robot that its first guess was wrong, the algorithm deduces that the other wrench must be the one that the user wants.
It will then hand that one over without asking another question. Those kinds of inferences, known as implicatures, make the algorithm more efficient.
