Aussie scientists set up contest to foil cocky robots
SYDNEY - We could soon live in a world where domestic service robots perform household chores and clean up for us as we go about our daily lives. But what if your new mechanical helper decides to put your laptop in the dishwasher, places your cat in the bathtub and throws your treasured possessions into the trash?
Current vision systems being tested on "simulated" domestic robots in the cluttered, unpredictable environments of the real world, are suffering severely from what experts refer to as overconfidence - meaning robots are unable to know when they don't know exactly what an object is.
When introduced into our day-to-day lives, this overconfidence poses a huge risk to people's safety and belongings, and represents a barrier for the development of autonomous robotics.
