Event Location: Rashid Auditorium, 4401 Gates Hillman Center
Bio: Marc Raibert is CTO and founder of Boston Dynamics, a company that develops some of the world’s most advanced dynamic robots, such as BigDog, Atlas, Cheetah, SandFlea and the AlphaDog. These robots are inspired by the remarkable ability of animals to move with agility, mobility, speed and grace. Before starting Boston Dynamics, Raibert was Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT from 1986 to 1995. Before that he was Associate Professor of Computer Science and Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon from 1980 to 1986. While at MIT and Carnegie Mellon Raibert founded the Leg Laboratory, a lab that helped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic legged robots. Raibert earned a PhD from MIT in 1977. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Abstract: Dynamic robots with advanced control systems and high-performance mechanical designs are leaving the laboratory and entering the world. They can operate in rough terrain, where most existing vehicles that use wheels and tracks can not go. In this talk I will give a status report on the robots we are developing at Boston Dynamics, such as LS3, the DARPA-funded follow-on to BigDog, Cheetah, a fast-running quadruped, and Atlas, an anthropomorphic robot designed to explore real-world tasks.