Research by Kate Darling and Cynthia Breazeal of the MIT Media Lab shows how humanizing robots can help shape people’s attitudes towards them, writes Gregory McNeal for Forbes. According to their paper, “participants hesitated significantly more to strike the robot when it was introduced through anthropomorphic framing, (such as a name or backstory).”
As part of its Game Changers series, Chronicle highlights Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, and her work developing robots that can collaborate, change shape and perform multiple tasks. Rus explains that she dreams “of a future where robots are as common as smart phones.”
Spencer Kelly of BBC News visits the MIT Distributed Robotics Lab to see how researchers have developed software that allows robots to build Ikea furniture. Kelly explains that the goal of the research is to “work towards robots that can work together collaboratively to build complex structures.”
Visiting Scholar Thomas Davenport argues in a piece for The Wall Street Journal that augmentation, in which humans and computers work together to enhance each other’s skills, would be the best way to integrate machines into the workforce. “The combination of human and computer-based capabilities leads to a better outcome than either could provide on their own,” he explains.
Prof. David Autor discusses his research showing that while automation is impacting middle-skill jobs, there has been an increase in high and low-skill jobs. While machines are entering the workplace, Autor believes that often they are serving “as tools to make humans more productive, not replace them,” explains Wall Street Journal reporter Timothy Aeppel.
Professor Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with Timothy Aeppel of The Wall Street Journal about why robots cannot perform tasks humans regularly perform, like folding laundry. While Rus explains that it would be difficult to predict when robots will be able to match the skill set of humans, “compared to now, what we had just two years ago was nothing, so I don’t think it’s going to take that long.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Timothy Aeppel spoke with faculty members across the Institute about how advances in automation could impact the labor market. Aeppel notes that MIT economists and roboticists meet regularly to gain a better interdisciplinary view of the current state of automation.
MIT researchers have developed a garden filled with origami robots, LED flowers that can bloom on command and mechanical insects, reports Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. The garden was developed in an effort to make programming more accessible to children.
Liz Stinson reports for Wired on a self-assembling chair designed by researchers in the MIT Self-Assembly Lab. The project “is an investigation into how structures might be able to autonomously assemble in uncontrolled environments like water,” writes Stinson.
Professor Erik Brynjolfsson speaks with Tom Ashbrook of WBUR’s On Point about the future of the American workforce as new technologies automate jobs traditionally performed by people. “People get a lot of value out of work beyond the paycheck,” says Brynjolfsson. “We’re looking at ways to keep people working.”
Gary Beach writes for The Wall Street Journal about Professor Erik Brynjolfsson’s predictions on how technology will change the workforce. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one-third, or more, jobs were eliminated by new technologies in the next decade,” says Brynjolfsson. “Millions of new jobs, however, will be created.”
Professor John Leonard speaks with Cory Johnson of Bloomberg Television about the potential for new developments in the field of robotics in 2015. “This year I think we’ll see some really exciting developments,” says Leonard. “I think it might take a little more than a year to see the real explosion.”
Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post highlights Prof. Sangbae Kim’s work developing a robot modeled after the cheetah. Kim explains that he took inspiration from the cheetah’s movements to design a robot that could run. “We can steal a lot of ideas from nature that we can apply . . . to speed up our engineering evolution,” he explains.
MIT researchers have designed a robotic cheetah that could possibly be used in search and rescue operations or as inspiration for the design of prosthetics, reports the Associated Press. “Our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life,” says Prof. Sangbae Kim.
The result of five years of testing, a robotic cheetah developed by MIT researchers can run at speeds of 10 miles per hour and jump 16 inches high, reports the Associated Press. "In the next 10 years, our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life," explains Professor Sangbae Kim.