A new robotic arm, developed by the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), has demonstrated the ability to use lightning fast reflexes to catch flying objects. The 1.5-meter-long arm has three joints and a sophisticated hand with four fingers and can track and catch flying objects.

While the arm has a variety of potential applications, the truly revolutionary part may be the way it learns. Researchers modeled the robots programming on the way humans learn: By imitation, trial and error. This technique, called “programming by demonstration,” replaces specific directions with a wide variety of examples. The arm is manually guided to the target several times until it “learns” what to do.

“Today’s machines are often pre-programmed and cannot quickly assimilate data changes. Consequently, their only choice is to recalculate the trajectories, which requires too much time from them in situations in which every fraction of a second can be decisive,” said Aude Billard, head of LASA, in a statement.

The robot was trained using a variety of objects, most of which were specifically selected because their center of gravity is abnormal which causes more complex movements and gives the robot a variety of axes to learn from. These included a ball, an empty bottle, a half full bottle, a hammer and a tennis racket.

Through the learning phase, the objects were tracked by the robot using cameras located all around it. This allows the robot to build up a database of various objects and how they behave when thrown. Scientists then translate those observations into an equasion which gives the robot hand the appearance of having quick reflexes.