Robotics

In a piece for CNN, Professor Erik Brynjolfsson and Dr. Andrew McAfee write that the rapid rate of technological innovation is leaving a large number of people without the skills necessary to participate in the modern economy. 

New Scientist reporter Hal Hodson writes about a new experiment out of the MIT Media Lab that is aimed at investigating how well children learn from robots. 

Newsweek reporter Tom Parrett writes about current advances, and the future of swarm robots, highlighting Professor Daniela Rus’ work with self-assembling robots. 

Writing for The Boston Globe, Leon Nayfakh examines the day he spent attending a conference via the People’s Bot, a telepresence robot developed by a team of MIT researchers.

In an article for El Mundo (written in Spanish), Carlos Betriu writes about the annual robotics competition that is the culmination of course 2.007. The goal of the course is to challenge students to solve problems with robots and to think creatively, Betriu reports.

Boston Globe reporter Carolyn Johnson writes about 2.007’s robotics competition. “Students competed at MITSKI, in which the robots they built from scratch had to climb ski slopes, descend them with grace, collect slalom flags, return flags to the ski chalet, and collect medals,” Johnson writes.

USA Today reporter Kelly Whiteside highlights Professor Hugh Herr’s work developing bionic prosthetic limbs that emulate the function of natural limbs. Herr developed a bionic leg that allowed Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis to dance again.

This Huffington Post article, co-authored by Professor Max Tegmark, looks at the future of artificial intelligence. The authors stress the need to spend more money investigating the potential benefits and risks of the robotic revolution.

Writing for Forbes, Leo King reports that an autonomous robotic submarine developed by MIT startup Bluefin Robotics is being deployed in the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.

The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman reports on Professor Erik Brynjolfsson’s presentation about how smart machines will soon be able to replace human workers in many fields at a conference hosted by M.I.T.’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.

“Mechanical engineers from MIT have developed a digging robot that can burrow through soil while expending very little energy -- by mimicking the burrowing mechanism of a razor clam,” writes Katie Collins in Wired of the robotic clam developed by MIT researchers.

Hiawatha Bray of The Boston Globe reports on research underway at MIT to develop robots that will be able to take the place of human first responders in disaster relief operations.

TIME reporter Doug Aamoth writes about the MIT DARPA Robotics Challenge team’s work with the Atlas robot built by Boston Dynamics. Aamoth reports that the team has been developing code that allows the robot to move faster and be more autonomous.

Boston Globe reporter Michael Farrell writes about how researchers like Professor Seth Teller are reimagining the wheelchair. For the past five years, Teller has been working on designing a, “completely robotic chair that can navigate and learn about a user’s home environment.”

The Economist describes how the Atlantic Razor clam’s digging capabilities inspired Professor Amos Winter to develop a new robot that can dig 20 centimeters into the sea floor in just 20 seconds.