Scientists have created a strange chest-mounted robot that could feed the greediest of people when they're too full to move.

The peculiar 'Arm-A-Dine' robot arm attaches to the middle of someone's chest and takes food from their plate to their mouth.

The robot, which is still just a prototype, is designed to augment the social experience of eating, researchers say.

The robotic arm was created by Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University in Australia and the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design.

'Arm-A-Dine is our design exploration of a novel two-person playful eating system that focuses on a shared feeding experience', researchers told Spectrum.

'In this experience, all three arms (the person’s own two arms and the “third” arm, the robotic arm) are used for feeding oneself and the other person.'

The robotic arm is attached top the body via a vest.

'We playfully subverted the functioning of the robotic arm so that its final movements (once it has picked up the food), i.e. whether to feed the wearer or the partner, are guided by the facial expressions of the dining partner.'

The arms move up and down by themselves but don't go all the way to the mouth.

 Instead, they stop ten centimetres away 'for safety reasons', researchers say. 

Scientists have created a strange chest-mounted robot that could feed people when they're too full to move. The peculiar 'Arm-A-Dine' robot arm attaches to the middle of someone's chest and takes food from their plate to their mouth

The robot, which is still just a prototype, is designed to augment the social experience of eating, researchers say

The robotic arm was created by Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University in Australia and the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design

They are also not totally autonomous, so people have to move to position them over their food.

The robot decides which person to give the food to depending their facial expressions.

If people smile they are more likely to be offered food and if they're frowning they don't get it.   

'Mapping of the partner’s “more positive” facial expression to the feeding of food to the partner (via the wearer’s third arm) we hoped would elicit joy, laughter, and a sense of sharing based on the knowledge of feeding one another', researchers said.

The arms move up and down by themselves but don't go all the way to the mouth. Instead, they stop ten centimetres away 'for safety reasons', researchers say

The robot decides which person to give the food to depending their facial expressions. If people smile they are more likely to be offered food and if they're frowning they don't get it

'Through to-and-fro ambiguous movements of the third arm in the air (when sensing a “neutral” facial expression of the dining partner), it gave an opportunity to the diners to express their reactions more vividly'.

Researchers say that Arm-a-Dine encourages people to savour food by making the experience slower and stranger.

The robotic arm is not currently a commercial project and it is not clear if and when it could be made available.  

HOW WILL ROBOTS CHANGE THE WORKPLACE BY 2022?

The World Economic Forum has unveiled its latest predictions for the future of jobs.

Its 2018 report surveyed executives representing 15 million employees in 20 economies.

The non-profit expects robots, AI and other forms of automation to drastically change the workplace within the next four years.

By 2022:

• Jobs predicted to be displaced: 75 million
• Jobs predicted to be created: 133 million 
• Share of workforce requiring re-/upskilling: 54 per cent
• Companies expecting to cut permanent workforce: 50 per cent
• Companies expecting to hire specialist contractors: 48 per cent
• Companies expecting to grow workforce: 38 per cent
• Companies expecting automation to grow workforce: 28 per cent