TRI builds large behavior models for fast robot teaching [Video]

Generative AI garnered a lot of attention last year, but developers have only just started applying it to robotics. In September 2023, Toyota Research Institute, or TRI, announced what it said was a “breakthrough” approach based on Diffusion Policy to quickly teach robots new skills.

The artificial intelligence advancement was a step toward building large behavior models (LBMs), which promise to do for robots what large language models (LLMs) have done for conversational AI, said TRI.“Our research in robotics is aimed at amplifying people rather than replacing them,” said Gill Pratt, CEO of TRI and chief scientist at parent company Toyota Motor Corp. “This new teaching technique is both very efficient and produces very high-performing behaviors, enabling robots to much more effectively amplify people in many ways.”

Previous AI approaches had limitations such as narrowly defined tasks and the need for numerous time-consuming iterative cycles, according to TRI, which …