Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a SCRABBLE-playing robot to explore what will cause people to engage with robots for extended periods and to enjoy it. The project anticipates the day when humans and robots will interact routinely at work and at home.

Victor the Gamebot, who plays SCRABBLE and trashtalks with humans on the third floor of the Gates and Hillman centers, is the subject of a feature in the Wall Street Journal. Victor is the latest social robot developed under the leadership of Reid Simmons, research professor in the Robotics Institute.

HERB, the Home Exploring Robot Butler, is no thespian. He's a mobile, two-armed robot that serves as a testbed for software and technologies that will someday enable robots to assist people in their homes. Nevertheless, HERB will appear this spring in "All in the Timing," a collection of plays by David Ives, and ETC student Katie Correll is part of a team preparing the robot for his stage debut.

Research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Robotics Institute shows that high-resolution, time-lapse photography, such as GigaPan Time Machine, can help scientists study plant behavior over vast scales outside of the laboratory.

Astrobotic Technology, which is attempting to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, has qualified for Milestone Prizes offered by the XPRIZE organization, which could net the team up to $1.75 million for reaching its objectives in three categories – Landing, Mobility, and Imaging. CMU will lead the effort in the Mobility category, which will demonstrate that the rover can survive the vacuum and extreme cold of the Moon, as well as show that it can complete and document a 500-meter traverse on the lunar surface.

The Buhl Planetarium at Carnegie Science Center will celebrate Back to the Moon Day this Saturday with three showings of “Back to the Moon for Good,” a 25-minute film about the Google Lunar X Prize competition. Members of Astrobotic Technology, the Carnegie Mellon spinoff that aims to win the prize, will make remarks and be on hand with information about the team.

"The Robots That Saved Pittsburgh," an article in the latest issue of Politico magazine, highlights the role of the Robotics Institute in the rebirth of Pittsburgh following the collapse of the steel industry.

An enthusiastic group of non-experts, working through an online interface and receiving feedback from lab experiments, has produced designs for RNA molecules that are consistently more successful than those generated by the best computerized design algorithms, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University report. The research will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.

Henry Ford Innovations – a venture development business unit of the Henry Ford Health System – today announced it will partner with the Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center to develop new digital health solutions that aim to improve patient outcomes and the art of transitional care post-discharge.

A soft, wearable device that mimics the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the lower leg could aid in the rehabilitation of patients with ankle-foot disorders such as drop foot, said Yong-Lae Park, an assistant professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University.