New York Times reporter John Markoff writes about Alias, a new system aimed at augmenting human pilots on flights. The system is being developed by Auroa Flight Sciences, which grew out of an MIT project, and with the assistance of researchers from MIT and Duke University.
Boston Globe Magazine reporter Neil Swidey travels to Singapore to learn more about Prof. Emilio Frazzoli’s work developing autonomous vehicles with the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). Frazzoli explains that he feels driverless cars have “the potential to change everybody’s life.”
In this video, MIT researcher Chris Green speaks with BBC Click about the swarm of autonomous drones developed by the MIT SENSEable City Lab that can communicate with one another and could be used to test water quality. Green explains that the drones can be outfitted to “include all sorts of sensors… from water quality to air quality.”
Heather Kelly of CNN writes about how MIT researchers have developed a swarm of drones that can fly and work collaboratively. "Some drones look at the big picture, others perform in-depth sampling, and the swarming system becomes much more efficient than if it were composed of one or more individual drones," says Prof. Carlo Ratti.
The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) plans to test a system that allows people to hail electric, autonomous cars, reports Kelly O’Brien for Boston.com. These “cars would be an efficient way to get people from their homes to a T stop or commuter rail station,” O'Brien explains.
Simon Kuper of The Financial Times speaks with Professor Carlo Ratti about urbanism. One of the biggest changes to modern cities, argues Ratti, could be the introduction of driverless cars: “Think how much real estate you are using to store idle pieces of metal that are used for what – an hour a day?”
In a piece for WBUR, Tom LeCompte interviews Professor John Leonard about the future of self-driving cars. Leonard believes that self-driving cars could be developed to handle even Boston’s notoriously difficult traffic. “Robots should just be able to navigate the way we navigate,” says Leonard.
Katie Collins writes for Wired that MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that will allow delivery drones to monitor their own health. “Drones will be able to keep an eye on their ability to do the job by predicting fuel levels and checking on the condition of propellers, cameras and other sensors,” writes Collins.
BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman writes that MIT researchers are developing new techniques to make future delivery drones more functional and efficient. “We have broken the large problem into lots of small problems,” says Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Jack Newsham interviews Professor John Leonard about the many challenges facing self-driving cars in a city like Boston. “Robots should just be able to navigate the way we navigate,” Leonard explains. “That’s been a challenge in robotics for 40 years.”
Wired reporter Margaret Rhodes writes about a new system developed by MIT researchers that uses drones as lighting assistants for photographs. The system operates by examining, “how much light is hitting the subject, and where the drone needs to move to adjust that light.”
Ben Coxworth of Gizmag writes about the new system developed by MIT researchers that allows photographers to achieve rim lighting during photo shoots. “Their system not only does away with light stands, but the light-equipped aircraft automatically moves to compensate for movements of the model or photographer,” writes Coxworth.
In a piece for Fortune, Benjamin Snyder writes about how MIT researchers have developed a new system to help achieve the perfect lighting for photo shoots. Flying robots are programmed to produce rim lighting, which illuminates the edge of the subject in a photograph.
Alex Davies writes for Wired about Cruise Automotive, a startup out of MIT that plans to make almost every car on the road autonomous. MIT graduate and CEO Kyle Vogt says his company’s RP1 highway car autopilot system offers more autonomy than what is currently available from automakers.
Professor John Leonard speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek about Google’s new Auto Android and how it compares with the company’s driverless car project. Leonard sees the two projects as part of an overall effort to dramatically transform transportation in our everyday lives.