Using a laser pointer to guide a robot to find and retrieve an item it has never seen before sounds like science fiction, but Georgia scientists have found a way to make the ‘impossible’ possible.

ATLANTA— A team of researchers led by Charlie Kemp, director of the Center for Healthcare Robotics in the Health Systems Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, have found a way to instruct a robot to find and deliver an item it may have never seen before using a more direct manner of communication, a laser pointer.