Robot chef learns to make salad by watching humans

Cambridge researchers have developed a robot capable of watching a cookery video, recognising which of several simple salads is being made, and then making the same salad itself using its robotic arm. The robot even demonstrated the impressive ability to watch a new, unfamiliar recipe being made, determine the required steps, and add the new recipe to its programmed cookbook. Perhaps one day robot chefs will be a familiar sight! At the very least, surely it won't be long until the robot is making up its own recipes (presumably with mixed success) rather than just copying them.

It's notable that the researchers trained their aspiring restaurateur using "a publicly available neural network". The pace of innovation in AI research is tremendously fast, as shown in Marks & Clerk's recent report on AI-related patent activity, and new tools are becoming widely available all the time. Whenever the pace of progress is so quick, it's vital to consider patenting new ideas as soon as possible. We would be delighted to help protect any further robotic culinary endeavours!