Project Fetch: Can Claude train a robot dog?

This post details an experiment using Claude to assist researchers in programming a robot dog to fetch beach balls. The experiment demonstrated a significant 'uplift' in task completion speed and success rate for the team with Claude access compared to the team without. Key technical contributions include: quantifying AI uplift in a physical robotics task, highlighting challenges in hardware connection and sensor data utilization, and observing how AI assistance can lead to broader exploration and potentially more code, but also more efficient problem-solving. The experiment also provided qualitative insights into team morale and dynamics when using AI assistants.