Overview
The University of Michigan’s Seagull virtual robot has won Amazon’s first Alexa Prize SimBot Challenge. The competition aims to encourage research in combining digital robots with AI and included teams from universities worldwide. The Seagull team, made up of nine University of Michigan students and their faculty advisor, received $500,000 for their project’s performance and ability to learn how to help people. The competition challenged teams to submit a machine-learning model capable of learning from human and sensory feedback to navigate virtual surroundings, handle objects and complete tasks.