Bulgarian INSAIT created the world's first model that "teaches" robots to perceive three-dimensional space

The Institute of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technologies (INSAIT) at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" made a historic breakthrough in robotics. Bulgarian scientists have created SPEAR-1, the first fundamental AI model of its kind that provides robots with real three-dimensional spatial understanding. This is the first such development in the world that is offered as open technology, available free of charge to researchers and companies around the world, BalkanEngineer.com learned from an INSAIT press release.

The new achievement marks a huge step towards a future in which robots will be able to interact naturally with the world around them – in homes, factories and cities. The international media are already describing SPEAR-1 as Europe's answer to the American giants that have dominated this field until now. Unlike them, INSAIT is opening up the technology to the global scientific community, which could accelerate the development of affordable and intelligent robotics.

The power of SPEAR-1 lies not only in its open model, but also in the way it understands the physical world. While most existing systems use two-dimensional images, SPEAR-1 is trained with real three-dimensional data, which allows it to "see," predict, and analyze the movements and interactions between objects in space. As a result, the model requires up to 20 times less training data but achieves higher accuracy and adaptability than standard approaches.

SPEAR-1 can be defined as "GPT for robots" — a model that understands human instructions and controls different types of machines in real-world conditions. This makes it a universal foundation for future developments in the field of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and industrial automation.

The project was developed by a team at INSAIT, including Nikolay Nikolov, Giuliano Albanese, Sombit Day, Alexander Yanev, Prof. Luc Van Goel, Dr. Jan-Nico Zech, and Dr. Danda Paudel. With this project, Europe takes a leading position in the global race for intelligent robotics, and Bulgaria establishes itself as a leading research center in this dynamic technological field.

Photo source: INSAIT, ©Engineer BG via Canva.com