Robot learns to write like a human

Even children can write and draw, but these two skills are actually more difficult than we think, because they require coordination between our minds and hands. Despite the difficulty of these processes, some developers from Brown University have managed to pass on primitive drawing and writing skills to a robot.

The robot uses an algorithm created by a student named Atsunobu Kotani. His program is made up of two parts: the first allows the machine to track the position of the quill, while the second is responsible for moving on to the next calligraphic element.

The machine was tasked with copying a Japanese character written on a board. The robot made several mistakes in the order of the strokes, but the final result was adequately readable.

Afterwards, the researchers wrote the word ‘hello’ in ten different languages, and the machine successfully completed the task of copying all of them, although Arabic proved to be a challenge because it required writing from right to left. The robot was also capable of copying the handwriting of young children and even some basic drawings.