A Robot Teaches Itself to Play Jenga. But This Is No Game

Matt Simon, writing for WIRED:

Researchers at MIT report today in Science Robotics that they’ve engineered a robot to teach itself the complex physics of Jenga. This, though, is no game—it’s a big step in the daunting quest to get robots to manipulate objects in the real world.

These MIT researchers are teaching a new robot some brand-new tricks. It’s easy to see how a machine that has perfected skills like accurately assessing and maneuvering Jenga blocks could move around in a physical environment, interacting with and manipulating any objects (inanimate and inanimate alike) it comes across.