New software lets robots pick up objects they have never seen before–an important step toward creating multifunctional domestic helpers.

Some roboticists are building perception systems for robots that look for certain features on objects that are good for grasping. A Stanford team has approached the problem by collecting a number of previously fragmented technologies, such as computer vision, machine learning, speech recognition, and grasping hardware, and put them together in a robot called STAIR (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot).