Giving robots a sense of touch
GelSight technology lets robots gauge objects’ hardness and manipulate small tools.
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Project Apophis
Space Systems Engineering students design a close-range mission to a giant asteroid that will fly by Earth in 2029.
Making prosthetic limbs feel more natural
Muscle grafts could help amputees sense and control artificial limbs.
Wearable system helps visually impaired users navigate
Device provides information from a 3-D camera, via vibrating motors and a Braille interface.
Danielle Olson: Building empathy through computer science and art
CSAIL PhD student creates immersive media to help users understand each other’s backgrounds and feelings.
New scaling law predicts how wheels drive over sand
Formula could help optimize construction vehicles, military tanks, and rovers on Mars.
Faster, more nimble drones on the horizon
New algorithm quickly makes sense of incoming visual data.
David Carpenter: Purpose driven to the core
Nuclear scientist David Carpenter found his calling at MIT's Nuclear Reactor Laboratory — improving the performance and safety of nuclear power plants.
MIT $100K winner’s optical chips perform AI computations at light speed
A flushless toilet that shrinks waste and a device that detects leaky pipes also won top prizes.
Dean Kamen: “The magic is out there!”
Noted inventors Kamen and Flowers urge students to unleash their imagination on world’s problems.
Cinematography on the fly
System directs camera-equipped drones to maintain framing of an aerial shot.
"Mens et manus" goes global
MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives program will send students to six continents this summer.
Q&A: On the future of human-centered robotics
Professor David Mindell, who researches the interaction between automation and human behavior, discusses the interdependence of people, robots, and infrastructure.
The Force was strong in this robot competition
MechE class ends semester with ingeniously designed robots battling on a “Star Wars”-themed playing field.
Teaching robots to teach other robots
CSAIL approach allows robots to learn a wider range of tasks using some basic knowledge and a single demo.