Robotics

Time features this video of the robot cheetah developed by Professor Sangbae Kim’s team. The researchers developed an algorithm that allows the four-legged robot to run untethered up to 10 miles per hour and jump over obstacles.

Thomas Tamblyn of The Huffington Post writes about a new video showing MIT’s Atlas robot carrying a metal frame. Tamblyn writes that the video demonstrates an advancement by MIT researchers, “who have been trying to juggle the complexities of making a robot walk while still dragging a weighted object in one hand.”

Thor Benson writes for United Press International about a new video of MIT’s Atlas robot that shows the robot moving objects of different weights while maintaining balance. A team of MIT researchers is competing with the Atlas robot in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. 

Writing for CNBC, Hazma Ali reports on new MIT research showing that humans prefer to receive orders from robots rather than humans. "Our findings showed that our subjects strongly preferred when the robot scheduled the work of the team,” explains graduate student Matthew Gombolay. 

Brady Dale writes for Fortune about how researchers in Professor Harry Asada’s group are working on developing a robot that can act as an extra set of limbs for factory workers. The machine would conduct the less-skilled tasks in a two-person job, freeing up the other worker.

Charles Pulliam-Moore of the PBS NewsHour reports on new research from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab showing that humans are happier and more productive when robots are in control.  The research, “could lead to situations in which human employees could be empowered by machines, rather than replaced by them,” Pulliam-Moore writes. 

Katie Collins writes for Wired that MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that will allow delivery drones to monitor their own health. “Drones will be able to keep an eye on their ability to do the job by predicting fuel levels and checking on the condition of propellers, cameras and other sensors,” writes Collins. 

Bloomberg News reports on Professor David Autor’s presentation on the U.S. labor market at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, where he presented research demonstrating that robots are not replacing as many human workers as some fear. “Challenges to substituting machines for workers in tasks requiring flexibility, judgment, and common sense remain immense,” Autor explains.

BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman writes that MIT researchers are developing new techniques to make future delivery drones more functional and efficient. “We have broken the large problem into lots of small problems,” says Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi. 

Writing for Science, Meghna Sachdev reports on how researchers from MIT and Harvard have built a team of 1,024 robots, the largest swarm of robots ever created. The robots are each the size of a U.S. quarter and could be used for search-and-rescue and construction operations. 

Drake Bennett of Bloomberg Businessweek reports on how a team of researchers from MIT and Harvard have created a robot that can self-assemble from a flat sheet of paper in four minutes. The robot is made of paper, and layered with a circuit board and prestretched polystyrene, the same material used to create Shrinky Dinks, Bennett explains. 

Bloomberg Businessweek spotlights the new self-folding, mobile robot developed by MIT and Harvard researchers. The design for the robot was inspired by origami and the team used inexpensive and easily accessible materials to build the robot, Bloomberg reports. 

Joseph Flaherty of Wired takes a close look at the design of MIT’s self-assembling robots. “[T]hese researchers are promoting a new kind of manufacturing where engineers can elegantly specify a design and watch it spring to life like a seed emerging from the ground,” writes Flaherty.

“Researchers at MIT and Harvard said that they achieved a landmark feat of engineering by creating a sophisticated machine—and doing so inexpensively and quickly—that has the ability to autonomously interact with its environment,” Kevin Conlon and Leigh Remizowski of CNN report.

Wired reporter Katie Collins writes about the new self-assembling, mobile robot developed by MIT and Harvard researchers. “It takes only four minutes for the robot to fold itself up, after which it can walk away with no human intervention,” writes Collins.