VIDEO: RODYMAN IS THE ROBOTIC PIZZA MAKER!

Robotics is taking the world by a storm, and now you get to have a robot make you some Pizzas, which would be great for those days where you had too much to drink the night before.

RoDyMan – an acronym for Robotic Dynamic Manipulation, is a five-year research project (2013- 2018) – funded by the European Research Council to the CREATE Consortium and carried out at PRISMA Lab in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Naples Federico II.

The goal is the development of a service robot that will be able to manipulate elastic and soft objects, which change continuously density and shape as well as to manipulate objects in a non-prehensile way; basically without grasping the object. These robots will not only be used in manufacturing but also as an aid to elderly or disabled people, for medical and surgical use, and in other manual activities.

We all know that preparing a pizza involves an extraordinary level of manual dexterity: for this reason, a pizzaiolo robot has been conceived and a pizza chef has been involved in the project to learn his keen motion directly through a biokinetic sensor. The RoDyMan robot wears these sensors while stretching the dough, seasoning, tossing and baking the pizza.

Creating a robot that is able to manipulate objects like humans is one of the most sought and difficult challenges of robotics. It means to replicate skills that are the result of human biological and cultural evolution. The video below shows RoDyMan making a pizza, taking second place in the first "Robotics Made in Italy" video contest, promoted by the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society's Italian Chapter.

Have a look at the video that was realised by Jonathan Cacace and Mario Selvaggio.