Scientists at the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft) and the Swiss Technical University (EPFL) have designed a robot arm using language-based artificial intelligence, ChatGPT. ChatGPT was tasking with designing a robot that could help solve a problem that is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity: accessing food supplies. The result is a tomato-harvesting robot with a rubber grip, using a Dynamixel motor, that can pick the fruit without crushing it.
ChatGPT extended engineers’ and researchers’ knowledge and suggested which crops would be the most valuable to automate. However, Cosimo Della Santina, an Assistant Professor at TU Delft, warned of the need to validate ChatGPT’s design decisions as AI output is not always accurate and may contain biases or be misleading. The challenge of using LLMs is how to incorporate them into design processes without restricting creativity and innovation for developing new robots.
Despite their success with ChatGPT, human intervention remains an important factor in the creative and technical aspects of robot design. In the long-term, scientists will continue to explore how AI can assist robot developers without inhibiting the ability to address the challenges of the 21st century.
