Check out this video from OpenAI of a robot hand learning how to manipulate a block. This an incredibly difficult task, and the level of difficulty is one of the many reasons Apple needs humans assembling iPhones. OpenAI used machine learning and virtual simulations for the robot to spend 100 years of trial and error to learn what you’ll see in the video (TechnologyReview has more details). Those virtual lessons were then used by the real-world robot hand, and it’s pretty darned cool. Check it out.
Check It Out: Watch This Robot Hand Learn How to Manipulate a Block
It’s interesting to me that the robot hand has five fingers. Has someone, somewhere determined that five is actually the optimal number. It may well be but I’m intrigued.