Robotics

The Huffington Post reports on how MIT researchers have developed a robotic cheetah that can run and jump, untethered. 

“MIT researchers have developed a football-size underwater robot that they say could soon help protect America's ports,” writes Brooks Hays for UPI. While the robot was designed to inspect the water tanks of nuclear reactors, researchers say it could be used to check ships for hidden contraband.

Professor Hugh Herr speaks with NPR about the loss of his legs during a climbing accident almost 30 years ago. The experience inspired Herr, head of the MIT Media Lab's Biomechatronics group, to develop functional prosthetic technology to help other amputees. 

USA Today’s Kristin Musulin reports on a new algorithm developed by MIT researchers that allows their cheetah robot to operate untethered. “This is the first time we show that an electrically powered robot can run and jump over one-foot height obstacles,” says Professor Sangbae Kim.

“Researchers at MIT have built a four-legged robot that runs like the super-fast spotted feline and can even run on its own power,” writes Amina Khan for The Los Angeles Times about MIT’s robotic cheetah. “[T]he researchers think that it could eventually reach speeds of 30 miles per hour.”

“Inspired by octopus tentacles, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)'s latest robot is as squishy as can be,” writes Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post. “Like other soft robots, this tentacle has potential in search and rescue missions.”

Dominique Mosbergen reports for The Huffington Post on MIT’s robotic cheetah: “[T]he researchers behind its development have devised an algorithm that allows their creation not just to run at speeds of up to 10 mph but also to jump over obstacles—all without being tethered to anything.”

Thomas Tamblyn of The Huffington Post reports on a soft, tentacle-shaped robot developed by doctoral candidate Andrew Marchese and PhD student Robert Katzschmann: “The arm is made using purely silicone which is then inflated and deflated forcing the arm to move in the desired direction.”

Brian Mastroianni reports for Fox News on the new algorithm developed by Professor Sangbae Kim’s team that gives its robotic cheetah the ability to run and jump over obstacles untethered. “Our goal is to use this kind of robot to save lives in a disaster situation,” said Kim. 

Professor Sangbae Kim and his team in MechE have developed an algorithm that allows a four-legged cheetah robot to run up to 10 mph and jump over obstacles untethered. “The Cheetah's new algorithm improvements make it more agile and able to handle real-life terrain,” writes Francie Diep.

MIT researchers have developed a robotic cheetah that can run at 10 miles per hour and jump more than a foot in the air, reports Lily Hay Newman for Slate. “Breakthroughs in the cheetah’s development could be applicable to other autonomous robots or things like prosthetics,” she writes.

Francie Diep writes for Popular Science about a soft robot designed by MIT’s Distributed Systems Lab, that is able to navigate a maze unaided: “Researchers that build soft robots like this one hope that in the future, soft machines will be safer for humans to work with than hard metal ones.”

“[B]y current robotics standards this MIT creation is a pretty sleek approximation of a cheetah,” writes Rachel Feltman for The Washington Post about Professor Sangbae Kim’s robotic cheetah. A new algorithm could eventually allow the robot to reach speeds of 30 miles per hour.

“Leave it to researchers from MIT to come up with a complex algorithm that’s specific to predatory motions like running, leaping, and bounding that can be programmed into a robot,” writes Steve Annear for Boston Magazine about the robotic cheetah developed by Professor Sangbae Kim’s team.

Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston writes about a soft, tentacle-shaped robot created by the Distributed Systems Lab at MIT that is able to navigate autonomously. “[T]he robot can make its way from one side of a pipe maze to another without humans getting involved,” writes Subbaraman.