About this Research Topic
Simple human activities like collecting ingredients, making a meal, and serving it to your guests were, until recently, far from the reach of robotics capabilities. The overarching task of preparing a breakfast was a benchmark challenge of the ICRA2023 PUB.R (Preparation and dish Up of an English Breakfast with Robots) competition, to highlight recent advancements in traditional robotics domains such as navigation, mobile manipulation, and scene understanding, alongside bio-inspired capabilities such as robotic tasting, dish-up evaluation, and appeal of the food. The PUB.R competition comprised three different scenarios: Shopping, Cooking, and Serving. In the first scenario (Shopping), a subset of spices and sauces had to be collected from a pantry area and brought to the cooking station to prepare the desired recipe. In the second scenario (Cooking), the food had to be prepared, cooked, and arranged on the plate, by taking into consideration taste and appearance of the final dish. In the last scenario (Serving), a robot had to serve the meal to a table for judging preparation and plate arrangement, explain the dish, and answer simple questions.
We are collecting, in a single Research Topic, researchers' efforts related to one or more of the scenarios of the PUB.R competition, demonstrated via high-quality scientific discoveries or as effective, efficient, and reliable deployment of robots within realistic environments. Contributors are encouraged to use the tasks of the competition to benchmark and demonstrate their algorithms and solutions, or to freely contribute to the overarching challenge posed by the preparation of a cooked meal.
The foreseen widespread employment of robots in unstructured environments and in close proximity to humans for tasks like elderly care, food preparation, social assistance, agriculture, emergency situations, and many more, requires a step forward in robots capabilities and in their deployment. In this Research Topic, by following the same approach proposed for the PUB.R competition, we are grouping several scientific challenges within the overarching goal of preparing a meal in a human-centered environment, i.e. a kitchen with appliances, tools, and cutleries. This collection will cover traditional robotics domains, including navigation, manipulation, and scene understanding, but also novel scientific challenges, such as robotic food tasting, communication, creativity, and art. By proposing a benchmark and a challenging task covering several domains, we establish a standard where solutions could be easily compared, and similarly, we push forward the state of the art promoting a goal (or mission) oriented steer of the research. By including all the advancements in a single Research Topic, we hope to find commonality and a breath of solutions that will push forward the employment of robots in unstructured environments, outside labs and factories.
This Research Topic addresses, without being limited to, the following areas:
• Mobile manipulation
• Navigation in cluttered environments
• Human interaction
• Robotic art
• Food handling and manipulation
• Tool handling and manipulation
• Scene understanding
• Natural language
• Robots for food science
• Robotic sensing and optimization of food products
We welcome papers of the following Article Types: Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Data Report, Brief Research Report, Technology and Code.
We are collecting, in a single Research Topic, researchers' efforts related to one or more of the scenarios of the PUB.R competition, demonstrated via high-quality scientific discoveries or as effective, efficient, and reliable deployment of robots within realistic environments. Contributors are encouraged to use the tasks of the competition to benchmark and demonstrate their algorithms and solutions, or to freely contribute to the overarching challenge posed by the preparation of a cooked meal.
The foreseen widespread employment of robots in unstructured environments and in close proximity to humans for tasks like elderly care, food preparation, social assistance, agriculture, emergency situations, and many more, requires a step forward in robots capabilities and in their deployment. In this Research Topic, by following the same approach proposed for the PUB.R competition, we are grouping several scientific challenges within the overarching goal of preparing a meal in a human-centered environment, i.e. a kitchen with appliances, tools, and cutleries. This collection will cover traditional robotics domains, including navigation, manipulation, and scene understanding, but also novel scientific challenges, such as robotic food tasting, communication, creativity, and art. By proposing a benchmark and a challenging task covering several domains, we establish a standard where solutions could be easily compared, and similarly, we push forward the state of the art promoting a goal (or mission) oriented steer of the research. By including all the advancements in a single Research Topic, we hope to find commonality and a breath of solutions that will push forward the employment of robots in unstructured environments, outside labs and factories.
This Research Topic addresses, without being limited to, the following areas:
• Mobile manipulation
• Navigation in cluttered environments
• Human interaction
• Robotic art
• Food handling and manipulation
• Tool handling and manipulation
• Scene understanding
• Natural language
• Robots for food science
• Robotic sensing and optimization of food products
We welcome papers of the following Article Types: Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Data Report, Brief Research Report, Technology and Code.
Keywords: Manipulation, Navigation, HRI, Food, Robotics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
