Whirr, click, hum: Robots go at it in 2.007 finale
Competition concludes mechanical design class, unleashing a wide variety of spinning, pumping and striking robots.
Woodie Flowers, a pioneer of hands-on engineering education
Flowers and his former student, David Wallace, have created a fun, teamwork-based approach to learning the art of mechanical design.
Robots that reveal the inner workings of brain cells
New method offers automated way to record electrical activity inside neurons in the living brain.
The robot revolution is just beginning
Rodney Brooks outlines his vision of the future to student entrepreneurs.
All in a day’s work: Design and print your own robot
MIT project, funded with $10 million NSF grant, could transform robotic design and production
Self-sculpting sand
New algorithms could enable heaps of ‘smart sand’ that can assume any shape, allowing spontaneous formation of new tools or duplication of broken mechanical parts.
Guiding robot planes with hand gestures
MIT researchers are developing a system that would allow aircraft-carrier crews to direct autonomous planes using ordinary hand gestures.
Sometimes the quickest path is not a straight line
New methods and software developed at MIT can predict optimal paths for automated underwater vehicles.
New system allows robots to continuously map their environment
Algorithm to build 3-D maps requires a low-cost camera, no human input.
Robots go head to head, 250 miles above Earth
Third annual Zero Robotics competition pits robots against each other on the International Space Station.
Speed limit for birds
MIT researchers find critical speed above which birds — and drones — are sure to crash.
CSAIL robots take center stage
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Principal Investigator Daniela Rus collaborated with modern dance company Pilobolus this past year to bring flying robots to the stage.
Helping robots hold on
MIT researchers design a ‘controllable adhesion system’ for underwater robots.
Navigating blindfolded
Advanced mathematical techniques enable AUVs to survey large, complex and cluttered seascapes.