Can the Vector robot be trained to blow objects into a receptacle?

Reinforcement Learning (RL) in action

Vector is trained to blow objects to a receptacle. Photo courtesy of research by Wu et. ai. documented at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.02390.pdf

We are beginning to see the use of the Vector robot in a lot of interesting research. Recently, researchers from Princeton University and Columbia University were able to demonstrate how Vector can be trained to successfully blow particles on a table into a bin. This research is very interesting not only for its content, but also visual demonstrations and open-source code. I strongly recommend those interested to go through the material.

How was this done?

Vector was trained using a technique called Reinforcement Learning (RL). RL is a very fascinating branch of Machine Learning, in which agents are trained to take actions with a goal to maximize the possibility of future rewards. In this specific case, the action is either: (i) Vector moving in some direction, or (ii) Turning and blowing. The reward is a score which consists of: (i) The number o…