Guy Zinman, a project scientist in the Lane Center for Computational Biology, accepts a treat from CoBot as the pumpkin-garbed robot reverse-trick-or-treated in the halls of the Gates and Hillman centers and in Newell-Simon Hall on Halloween. The autonomous robot is a project of Manuela Veloso, professor of computer science, and her research group.

The Robot Hall of Fame® inducted four robots chosen for the first time by a popular vote — Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO humanoid, iRobot’s PackBot bomb disposal robot, Boston Dynamics’ four-legged BigDog and WALL-E, the fictional robot of the namesake Pixar movie — during a ceremony Oct. 23 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. See a slideshow of the event.

Roboticists at Carnegie Mellon University will field two teams in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, a competition in which robots will perform complex, physically challenging tasks as they respond to disaster scenarios in human-engineered environments, such as nuclear power plants.

Bossa Nova Robotics, a company founded by Robotics Institute PhD alumnus Sarjoun Skaff, announced Oct. 23 at the RoboBusiness Leadership Summit that it is producing mObi, the first commercially available robot that uses a unique locomotion technology pioneered by the Robotics Institute’s Ralph Hollis in his Ballbot robot.

The work of the Robotics Institute is so expansive that it defies easy description. But a new brochure is designed to tell prospective students, potential sponsors and the public at large the essentials of the institute’s history and of its future direction.

Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center presents the fifth Robot Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Carnegie Science Center,6:30-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and lots of entertainment included. Purchase tickets: http://www.robothalloffame.org/register.html.

Students pursuing computer science, engineering or other undergraduate degrees at Carnegie Mellon University will have the option this fall to include an additional major in robotics. The Robotics Institute already offers more undergraduate robotics courses than any other university in the world and for the past 12 years has offered an undergraduate minor in robotics. The additional major in robotics, however, responds to the growing interest of students in this multidisciplinary field and to demands by employers for more graduates with a deep understanding of this critical technology.

Astrobotic Technology Inc. has completed assembly of a full-size prototype of Polaris, a solar-powered robot that will search for potentially rich deposits of water ice at the moon’s poles. The first of its kind, Polaris can accommodate a drill to bore one meter into the lunar surface and can operate in a lunar regions characterized by dark, long shadows and a sun that hugs the horizon. Astrobotic, a Robotics Institute spinoff that develops robotics technology for planetary missions, is developing Polaris for an expedition to the moon’s northern pole.

Kevin J. Dowling (S’83, CS’94, ’97), the Robotics Institute's first employee, was among 15 Carnegie Mellon University alumni, students and faculty honored for their achievements and service to the university by the CMU Alumni Association as part of Cèilidh Weekend.

Adaptive traffic signals deployed as a pilot project by the Robotics Institute’s Stephen Smith have demonstrated they can reduce both harmful vehicle emissions and frustratingly long travel times in Pittsburgh’s busy East Liberty neighborhood. The pilot project was sponsored by three Pittsburgh foundations and deployed in cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh and East Liberty Development Inc.