University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers built a robotic arm that can approach unfamiliar objects such as scissors, garden shears, and jointed wooden toys, and learn how they work by pushing on them and observing how they change.

The arm can “see” its environment through a digital camera. After testing the new object, the arm stores how the objects move as a kinematic model, which can be used to perform specific tasks such as opening scissors.

No word if the robots are able to run with scissors. – Ed