NASA Funding Could Establish New Paradigm For Extraterrestial Robots NASA has selected lunar logistics company Astrobotic Technology, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, to develop a new class of small, lightweight rovers, called CubeRovers, capable of small-scale science and exploration on extraterrestrial surfaces. The CubeRover, weighing no more than 4.4 pounds, would establish a new [...]
One of Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Professor Howie Choset's famous snake-like robots crawled up the even more famous leg of comedian Jimmy Fallon during an April 25 appearance on NBC’s "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." "Slow down there, mister!" Fallon exclaimed as the robot reached his knee, much to the delight of the studio [...]
The Girls of Steel robotics team and the team’s lead mentor, George Kantor, both won awards at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Competition, March 15-18. The team, which includes 50 girls from 20 Pittsburgh area high schools and is sponsored by the Field Robotics Center, won the Engineering Inspiration Award, qualifying the team for its [...]
A School of Computer Science alumnus, Kiran Bhat, and a former Robotics Institute faculty member, Iain Matthews, are among the 18 winners of this year’s Scientific & Technical Achievements Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. Both were recognized for their work in capturing facial performances. The technical awards were presented [...]
Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence and Research group, has been elected as a foreign member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Shum, who was born in China, earned a Ph.D. in robotics at Carnegie Mellon in 1996. Sridhar Tayur, a professor in the Tepper School of Business who specializes [...]
Takeo Kanade, Carnegie Mellon University's U. A. and Helen Whitaker Professor of Robotics and Computer Science, has been named the 2017 recipient of the IEEE Founder's Medal — one of IEEE's highest honors. The medal, which will be presented at the annual IEEE Honors Ceremony on Thursday, May 25, in San Francisco, recognizes Kanade "for [...]
Carnegie Mellon researchers in Qatar and Pittsburgh have joined forces to explore the behavior of successful negotiators. The study uses the Robotics Institute's Panoptic Studio, a two-story geodesic dome that is fitted with 480 synchronized video cameras to capture fine details in human interaction. John O’Brien, associate dean and associate professor of accounting at CMU-Q, [...]
Babies learn about their world by pushing and poking objects, putting them in their mouths and throwing them. Carnegie Mellon University scientists are taking a similar approach to teach robots how to recognize and grasp objects around them. Manipulation remains a major challenge for robots and has become a bottleneck for many applications. But researchers [...]
An independent institute founded by Carnegie Mellon University will receive more than $250 million to launch an advanced robotics manufacturing institute in Pittsburgh, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Jan. 13. The Department of Defense awarded the public-private Manufacturing USA institute to American Robot, a nonprofit venture led by Carnegie Mellon, with more than 220 [...]
Howie Choset, professor of robotics, and Manuela Veloso, head of the Machine Learning Department, are two of eight founding editorial board members of Science Robotics, the latest member of the Science family of journals. The journal’s inaugural issue, published on Dec. 6, included a review article on bio-inspired robots written by Matt Travers, systems scientist [...]