Many groups at MIT work on robotics including the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the MIT Media Lab, just to name a few.
Until recently, athletes using Passive Elastic Running Prostheses (PERPS) were clearly at a disadvantage compared to those with fully functional biological legs. The remarkable accomplishments of a few prominent athletes (e.g. Oscar Pistorius, Amy Palmierio-Winters) ...
Our research aims at the creation of fast and efficient running motions of four legged robotic systems. We design our robots to explicitly enable and exploit natural dynamic effects (such as the oscillation on springy legs) in their mechanical structure and their ...
Designing controllers for legged locomotion requires dealing with complex nonlinear dynamics and non-trivial notions of stability including limit cycles and dynamically stable maneuvers. In this talk I will describe the LQR-Trees algorithm for designing feedback ...
Mobile robot designers are increasingly searching for inspirations and design cues from biological models. Biomechanics research of animals provides an invaluable source of ideas for legged robot design but the process of implementation involves great complexity. The ...
Floquet theory describes the linearization of an oscillator around its orbit. We convert this familiar classical result to an empirical form, allowing Floquet models to be constructed directly from experimentally obtained trajectories of periodic gaits. The Floquet ...
Cybernetic human HRP-4C is a humanoid robot whose body dimensions were designed to match the average Japanese young female. I will explain the current status of HRP-4C and lessons we learned from the project.
In this talk a framework based on energetical reasoning for modeling and control purposes based on port-Hamiltonian theory will be briefly presented. Then this methodology will be used to analyse novel concepts of actuations called Variable Impedance Actuators. This ...
It is now well established that the elastic function of tendons has a profound influence on the mechanics, energetics, and control of locomotion. A model of a simple Hookean spring in series with a muscle actuator reveals mechanisms that reduce the energy cost of ...
Beyond simple walking, bipedalism implies more generally a capability of manipulation with the feet (pedipulation), through discontinuous deformation of the standing region and continuous manipulation of the reaction forces within the standing region. In this talk, I ...
Integrative approaches to studying the coupled dynamics of skeletal muscles with their loads while under neural control have focused largely on questions pertaining to the postural and dynamical stability of animals and humans. Prior studies have focused on how the ...
Tilting timelapse video of the construction of the new MIT building E14 - the Media Lab extension. Part of an ongoing high-resolution documentation project of the construction.
Tilting timelapse video of the construction of the new MIT building E14 - the Media Lab extension. Part of an ongoing high-resolution documentation project of the construction.
This video shows a simulation of a vehicle driving on two types of off-road surfaces. One vehicle is on a flat, sloped surface, and the other vehicle is on a rough, sloped surface. It can be seen that the roughness causes one vehicle to rollover. Read more at the ...
A short video of rookie team #2349 testing our 2008 FRC Overdrive robot! Note: We're not the MIT team, that's team 97.Our ball manipulator is missing in this picture, but you can find our teaser picture on Chief Delphi or, once it's been updated, http://www.waylandfirst.com/Good luck this ...
Our indoor quad-rotor, using a laser range finder to control its velocity, position while mapping its environment
This is the complete platform for indoor autonomous flight, developed under Nick Roy in the Robust Robotics Group at CSAIL.
President and CEO of ViaCyte comments on engineering and hacks.
LuminAR reinvents the traditional incandescent bulb and desk lamp, evolving them into a new category of robotic, digital information devices.
Design 2.007, MIT's annual festival of machine design, manufacturing and adrenalin, culminated in a clash between two major crowd-pleasers: a grappler-trailer combo designed and driven by David Arguelles, and a truck-and-winch machine designed and driven by Kurtis McKenney. The contest, now ...
