Robot Being Programmed to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies From Scratch

Posted on June 12, 2011

MIT graduate student Mario Bollini, a member of Professor Daniela Rus Distributed Robotics Lab, has spent the past several months programming a PR2 robot to bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch. The process seems simple, but MIT says it is actually quite complex for a robot.

While the project was originally intended as a simple introductory project, it has turned out to be quite challenging due to all of the nuances involved with programming a robot to follow a lengthy list of tasks, while also employing vision, object detection and executing controlled motions.
To bake the cookies, Bollini first has the PR2 examine the table using a laser scanner and stereo camera to locate the cookie sheet and butter. All of the other ingredients and supplies the PR2 identifies by color and size. The PR2 then follows a hard code of the recipe, from mixing the ingredients to scraping the cookie dough onto the baking sheet and patting it into a large cookie.

This video shows the PR2 being tested with uncooked beans as placeholders for the real ingredients. The bakebot looks to be getting the hand of the mixing but the scraping process looks really slow. Making cookies could be a very lengthy process for the PR2. The robot is wearing a plastic surgical gown in the video. Take a look:

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