Automator's Edge ｜ This Robot Might Cook Better Than You

Who's a better cook, humans or robots? If your home-cooked meals taste more like a survival challenge than an actual meal, then it could be the robot. Because robots like Gene26.5, Genesis AI's omelet slinging bot, are accelerating their culinary skills while adapting to human behavior. Gene26.5 has a robotic brain designed to bring human-level dexterity and manipulation to general-purpose robots. But how do they do it? The system pairs a robotics foundation model with a scalable training platform aimed at overcoming one of robotics' biggest challenges, the lack of high-quality training data. At the core of the platform is a high-capacity data engine that can generate large volumes of training data combined with proprietary robotic hand design to closely mirror human anatomy. To collect data efficiently, Genesis AI also developed a wearable glove with tactile sensing that maps human and movement to robotic actions in a one-to-one-to-one relationship between human, glove, and robot. All of this helps enable Gene26.5 to cook multiple-step meals, perform lab procedures, assemble electronics, dominate Rubik's cubes, and play the piano. But can it play the boogie-woogie? Let's see a robot boogie to that woogie. With Gene26.5, robots take a major step forward learning directly from human activity to become much more efficient. And if you want efficient parts in your design, Mouser Electronics is the best place to find them. ETA4230T Thermomagnetic Miniature Circuit Breakers are DIN rail-mounted devices designed for reliable circuit protection and industrial and automation systems. Featuring a snap-action, trip-free mechanism, they help ensure consistent switching and include visual status indication for easy monitoring. With high rupture capacity and multiple trip characteristics, they are rated IP20 and are compliant with these electrical safety and performance standards. The circuit breakers protect cables, motors, generators, and sensitive electronics and offer durable performance, wide operating temperature range, and compatibility with global installations. The ETA4230T Thermomagnetic Miniature Circuit Breakers are ideal for industrial, automation, motor protection, and motor control applications. Check them out today by visiting mouser.com or by clicking the link below. Normally open and normally closed contacts. When should you use each? To explain, we present David's Corner. Thanks, Andy. Today's topic is probably going to seem pretty basic to most control system veterans, but we're going to talk about the difference between normally open and normally closed contacts. Most of the time, they're going to be slightly either different in color or they have some obvious indicator on them from a manufacturer that indicates whether they're in O or in C. Normally open means that when you press the button, electricity will flow. But when you release the button, electricity will stop flowing, which is electrically what they call open. So when the spring takes over and we let go, the circuit is open and no electricity will flow. The exact opposite is true for normally closed. When we press the button, the electricity stops flowing because when we let go of the button in its normal state, the circuit is closed and therefore electricity can flow. Now, if they're not obviously colored or if we're suspecting that one might be bad, how can we test them? Well, it's pretty simple. We take a multimeter and we switch it to its resistance measurement mode, ohms. And in its normal state, so just sitting on the table, we test the resistance of the contacts. And I see that the resistance of the contact says OL. Now, if we want to test further, we press the button and we see that when we press the button, the resistance decreases to almost nothing. That means that it is working and in its normal state, it's open. The opposite would be true for a normally closed button. When we test the contacts, we see an extremely low resistance while it's just sitting on the table. That's its normal position. So normally, it can allow electricity to flow. Normally open means that when it's sitting on the table or when we're not pressing the button, electricity cannot flow. Again, it's a pretty simple concept for those with experience in control system automation, but the difference between NO and NC contacts is a really important one to understand. Andy, back to you. Thank you, David. All right, it's time to adjust your knowledge gains in our SmartBit quiz with our three control automation questions. The questions are scored using actuator output percentage, and today we'll be testing your knowledge on a humanoid robot pianist named LiberBody. Let's begin with our first question worth 25%. LiberBody isn't a pianist that starts a concert slow. He tears right into the opening song. What control strategy best handles fast expressive piano dynamics? Is it A, closed-loop force feedback control, or B, open-loop trajectory control? And the answer is A, closed-loop force feedback control. Closed-loop force feedback enables real-time correction for expressive and accurate key interaction. Okay, let's move on to our next question worth 25%. LiberBody's piano fingering amazes the audience. What control method best supports polyphonic coordination? Is it A, centralized joint space control with coordination constraints, or B, decoupled single axis control per finger? And the answer is A, centralized joint space control with coordination. Coordination ensures timing and force consistency across multiple fingers. Okay, let's move on to our next question worth 50%. Oh no, LiberBody's playing is too hot to handle. The virtuoso robot starts playing off time. Why is latency especially critical in robotic piano systems? Is it A, it disrupts timing and rhythm accuracy, or B, it affects power consumption? And the answer is A, it disrupts timing and rhythm accuracy. Even small delays break musical synchronization. Want to try again? Just click the link on your screen and be sure to check out our other Automator's Edge videos for the latest in control automation.