No shame in asking for help (Image: Ken Conley/Willow Garage)

ASKING someone for help is second nature for humans, and now it could help robots overcome one of the thorniest problems in artificial intelligence.

That’s the thinking behind a project at Willow Garage, a robotics company in Palo Alto, California. Researchers there are training a robot to ask humans to identify objects it doesn’t recognise. If successful, it could be an important step in developing machines capable of operating with consistent autonomy.

Object recognition has long troubled AI researchers. While computers can be taught to recognise simple objects, such as …