Robots in Japan are found on factory floors carrying out simple tasks or delivering food to restaurant patrons but researchers have now unveiled a robot capable of executing the delicate task of peeling a banana without squashing the fruit inside.
While the dual-armed machine is only successful 57% of the time, banana peeling points to a future where machines undertake more subtle operations than moving metal parts or delivering coffee.
A video from researchers at the University of Tokyo showed the robot pick up and peel a banana with both hands in about three minutes.
Researchers Heecheol Kim, Yoshiyuki Ohmura and Yasuo Kuniyoshi trained the robot using a "deep imitation learning" process where they demonstrated the banana-peeling action hundreds of times to produce sufficient data for the robot to learn the actions and replicate it.
In this case, the robot reached its success rate after more than 13 hours of training.
While still undergoing more testing, Kuniyoshi believes his robot training method can teach robots to do different simple "human" tasks.
He hopes the better-trained robots can alleviate Japan's labour shortage problems, for example at bento lunch box or food processing factories that are highly dependent on human labour.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
This Robot Can Peel A Banana Without Squishing It, And Twitter Has Questions Fascinated By Robots, Maharashtra Village Students Learn Japanese Buddhists In Japan Are Turning To 'Mindar' Robots To Spread Their Message Travel Influencer Aanvi Kamdar Dies After Falling Off A Waterfall Near Mumbai Amid Huge Row, Karnataka Pauses Bill For Reservation In Private Sector Firms "Assassination Attempt Has Sealed The Election": Trump's Close Aide Biden Says Could Drop Election Bid If "Medical Condition" Emerged Russia Says It's Ready To Work With Any US Leader 3 People Die After Drowning In Lake In Telangana: Cops Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.