Robotics

An albatross glider, designed by MIT engineers, skims the Charles River.

Albatross robot takes flight

Autonomous glider can fly like an albatross, cruise like a sailboat.

May 18, 2018

John Taylor Novak, a mechanical engineering junior, navigates his robot "Red Eye" through the game board at Thursday’s competition.

Students demonstrate "calculated imagination" in robot competition

Mechanical engineering students in class 2.007 battle for points in Willy Wonka-themed final robot competition.

May 14, 2018

A team of MIT researchers tested MapLite on a Toyota Prius outfitted with a range of LIDAR and IMU sensors.

Self-driving cars for country roads

Today’s autonomous vehicles require hand-labeled 3-D maps, but CSAIL’s MapLite system enables navigation with just GPS and sensors.

May 7, 2018

To create complete road maps companies like Google often have to have employees take existing aerial images with incomplete information and manually fill in the gaps.

A new way to automatically build road maps from aerial images

“RoadTracer” system from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory could reduce workload for developers of apps like Google Maps.

April 17, 2018

Associate professor of mechanical engineering Sangbae Kim and his team at the Biomimetic Robotics Lab developed the quadruped robot, the MIT Cheetah.

Cheetah III robot preps for a role as a first responder

Sangbae Kim is now developing the Cheetah III as a commercially viable robot to operate in compromised emergency response environments.

March 26, 2018

Using its undulating tail and a unique ability to control its own buoyancy, SoFi can swim in a straight line, turn, or dive up or down.

Soft robotic fish swims alongside real ones in coral reefs

Made of silicone rubber, CSAIL’s “SoFi” could enable a closer study of aquatic life.

March 21, 2018

PhD student Adriana Schulz was co-lead on AutoSaw, which lets nonexperts customize different items that can then be constructed with the help of robots.

Custom carpentry with help from robots

CSAIL’s robotic system minimizes dangerous sawing, helps users customize furniture.

February 28, 2018

The “pick-and-place” system consists of a standard industrial robotic arm that the researchers outfitted with a custom gripper and suction cup. They developed an “object-agnostic” grasping algorithm that enables the robot to assess a bin of random objects and determine the best way to grip or suction onto an item amid the clutter, without having to know anything about the object before pic...

Robo-picker grasps and packs

New robotic system could lend a hand with warehouse sorting and other picking or clearing tasks.

February 19, 2018

CSAIL's NanoMap system allows drones to fly in congested environments such as forests.

Programming drones to fly in the face of uncertainty

CSAIL's NanoMap system enables drones to avoid obstacles while flying at 20 miles per hour, by more deeply integrating sensing and control.

February 12, 2018

MIT Media Lab spinout Ori is developing smart robotic furniture that transforms into a bedroom, working or storage area, or large closet — or slides back against the wall — to optimize space in small apartments.

Robotic interiors

Smart furniture transforms spaces in tiny apartments into bedrooms, work spaces, or closets.

January 31, 2018

Class 2.680 (Unmanned Marine Vehicle Autonomy, Sensing and Communications), which is offered during spring semester, is structured around the presence of ice on the Charles. While the river is covered by a thick sheet of ice in February and into March, students are taught to code and program a remotely-piloted marine vehicle for a given mission.

Unlocking marine mysteries with artificial intelligence

Students put their AI software for underwater vehicles to the test on the Charles River.

December 14, 2017

The principal researchers of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's 10 finalists for R&D 100 Awards are seen here with Lincoln Laboratory Director Eric Evans (far left). The principal researchers for the six winning technologies display their award plaques.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory earns six R&D 100 Awards for 2017

Technologies named among the year's most significant innovations address health care, radar performance, aircraft collision avoidance, and 24-hour wide-area surveillance.

December 8, 2017

Consisting of a headset and hand controllers, CSAIL's new VR system enables users to teleoperate a robot using an Oculus Rift headset.

Teleoperating robots with virtual reality

A virtual reality system from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory could make it easier for factory workers to telecommute.

October 11, 2017

Engineers at MIT have developed a new model to simulate dynamic soaring, and have used it to identify the optimal flight pattern that an albatross should take in order to harvest the most wind and energy. They found that as an albatross banks or turns, it should do so in shallow arcs, keeping almost to a straight, forward trajectory.

Engineers identify key to albatross’ marathon flight

Flying in shallow arcs helps birds stay aloft with less effort.

October 10, 2017

Dubbed “Primer,” a new cube-shaped robot can be controlled via magnets to make it walk, roll, sail, and glide. It carries out these actions by wearing different exoskeletons, which start out as sheets of plastic that fold into specific shapes when heated. After Primer finishes its task, it can shed its “skin” by immersing itself in water, which dissolves the exoskeleton.

“Superhero” robot wears different outfits for different tasks

Shape-shifting device from CSAIL can walk, roll, sail, and glide using recyclable exoskeletons.

September 27, 2017

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