The Robotics Institute’s David Kohanbash, principal systems/software engineer, and William “Red” Whittaker, professor of robotics, discuss how a tablet can be used to launch the RadPiper uranium-detection robot with Rodrigo V. Rimando Jr., director of technology development for DOE's Office of Environmental Management, and Charles Allyn, a non-destructive assay technician with Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth. [...]
Deep reinforcement learning makes basketball video games look more realistic Basketball players need lots of practice before they master the dribble, and it turns out that’s true for computer-animated players as well. By using deep reinforcement learning, players in video basketball games can glean insights from motion capture data to sharpen their dribbling [...]
In the sixth episode of Schooled in AI, David Held, assistant professor at The Robotics Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, talks about why it's important for robots to operate in a changing environment. In this episode, you'll hear Held talk about: Why uncertainty presents a big challenge to robots operating [...]
New Mon Valley Breathe Cams Document Sources of Visual Pollution PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab is using a new network of cameras to provide 24-hour monitoring of visible air pollution from industrial sources in the Monongahela Valley. The network is being activated today in conjunction with the [...]
Autonomous systems need to predict, monitor, judge their own performance Xiang Zhi Tan, a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute, works with a Baxter robot, part of a multi-university research program to enable robots to assess their own performance at tasks. PITTSBURGH—In a parallel to how “The Little Engine That Could” once chanted, [...]
We Can Be is a podcast with The Heinz Endowments’ Grant Oliphant featuring leaders as they share the often moving, sometimes funny and always inspiring accounts of how they came to believe that together we can be a healthier, smarter, and more creative and just community. Podcast Link
The Robotics Institute’s multi-jointed Snakebot robot, which searched for earthquake survivors in Mexico City last fall, has been named Ground Rescue Robot of the Year by the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR). CRASAR, an independent, not-for-profit research group, presented its first-ever Disaster Robotics Awards on April 14 as part of National Robotics Week. [...]
Illah Nourbakhsh, professor of robotics and director of the CREATE Lab, will be one of two recipients of new Carnegie Mellon University professorships created with funding from the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies. Nourbakhsh will be the first recipient of the K&L Gates Professorship in Ethics and Computational Technologies. Molly Wright Steenson, [...]
ISR’s Tom Pope Cited For Mentoring Team Photo of GoS FIRST Chairman's Award The Girls of Steel Robotics team and their robot, Clyde, made it to the semi-finals of the FIRST® Robotics Competition Greater Pittsburgh Regional March 22-24 and took home several awards, including the prestigious Chairman’s Award. The team, sponsored [...]
Office of Naval Research Project Wins Howard Hughes Award The Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) team developed and successfully demonstrated a fully autonomous helicopter flight capability. AHS International, The Vertical Flight Society, has announced the winner of its 2018 Howard Hughes Award is an Office of Naval Research (ONR) autonomous helicopter [...]