Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Cognitive robotics

Modelling human tool use in robots

Nature Machine Intelligence volume 4, pages 907–908 (2022)Cite this article

Tool use is one of the defining traits of human cognition that sets our species apart from other animals. A novel computational framework may enable robots to use tools as intelligently as humans do.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A robot using a previously unseen tool to complete the task of pulling an object towards it.

References

  1. Vaesen, K. Behav. Brain Sci. 35, 203–218 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Tee, K. P., Cheong, S., Li, J. & Ganesh, G. Nat. Mach. Intell. 4, 533–543 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Seed, A. & Byrne, R. Curr. Biol. 20, R1032–R1039 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Guerin, F., Kruger, N. & Kraft, D. IEEE Trans. Autonom. Mental Develop. 5, 18–45 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Jamone, L. et al. IEEE Trans. Cogn. Develop. Syst. 10, 4–25 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Osiurak, F. & Badets, A. Psychol. Rev. 123, 534–568 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Saponaro, G., Vicente, P., Dehban, A., Jamone, L., Bernardino, A. & SantosVictor, J. ICDL-EpiRob 331–337 (2017).

  8. Shumaker, R. W., Walkup, K. R. & Beck, B. B. Animal tool behavior: the use and manufacture of tools by animals. (JHU Press, 2011).

  9. Billard, A. & Kragic, D. Science 364, eaat8414 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Kawaharazuka, K., Okada, K. & Inaba, M. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 6, 5992–5999 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Boesch, C. & Boesch, H. Folia Primatol. 54, 86–99 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Weir, A. A. S., Chappell, J. & Kacelnik, A. Science 297, 981–981 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ambrose, S. H. Science 291, 1748–1753 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Nair, L., Balloch, J. & Chernova, S. IEEE Int. Conf. Robot. Autom. 5837–5843 (2019).

  15. Solak, G. & Jamone, L. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intell. Robot. Syst. 8246–8251 (2019).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University London, London, UK

    Lorenzo Jamone

Authors
  1. Lorenzo Jamone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lorenzo Jamone.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jamone, L. Modelling human tool use in robots. Nat Mach Intell 4, 907–908 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-022-00562-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-022-00562-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing