News Archive
Robotics Highlighted in President's Spring 2013 Update
The President’s Update, now available online, provides a high-level overview of Georgia Tech’s impact, as well as research, innovation, student, faculty, and staff accomplishments. The breakthrough research that Georgia Tech is doing in robotics is gaining national and international attention.
Robot Nurses?
Roboticists are currently developing machines that have the potential to help patients with caregiving tasks, such as housework, feeding and walking. But before they reach the care recipients, assistive robots will first have to be accepted by healthcare providers such as nurses and nursing assistants. Based on a Georgia Institute of Technology study, it appears that they may be welcomed with open arms depending on the tasks at hand.
Robotics Arm Mimics Human Behavior
Charlie Kemp, director of Georgia Tech’s Healthcare Robotics Lab, his graduate students and researchers at Meka Robotics have developed a control method that works in tandem with compliant robotic joints and whole-arm tactile sensing. This technology keeps the robot’s arm flexible and gives the robot a sense of touch across its entire arm.
Freed From Its Cage, the Gentler Robot
In a recent New York Times interview, Henrik Christensen and Andrea Thomaz discussed gentler industrial robots. Designed with sophisticated algorithms and sensing technologies, these robots work and play well with others. Now, it's safe for them to come out from behind their protective fences to work shoulder-to-shoulder with people.
Freed From Its Cage, the Gentler Robot
In a recent New York Times interview, Henrik Christensen and Andrea Thomaz discussed gentler industrial robots. Designed with sophisticated algorithms and sensing technologies, these robots work and play well with others. Now, it's safe for them to come out from behind their protective fences to work shoulder-to-shoulder with people.
Sea Turtles and FlipperBot Show How to Walk on Granular Surfaces Like Sand
For sea turtle hatchlings struggling to reach the ocean, success may depend on having flexible wrists that allow them to move without disturbing too much sand. A similar wrist also helps a robot known as “FlipperBot” move through a test bed, demonstrating how animals and bio-inspired robots can together provide new information on the principles governing locomotion on granular surfaces.
Sea Turtles and FlipperBot Show How to Walk on Granular Surfaces Like Sand
For sea turtle hatchlings struggling to reach the ocean, success may depend on having flexible wrists that allow them to move without disturbing too much sand. A similar wrist also helps a robot known as “FlipperBot” move through a test bed, demonstrating how animals and bio-inspired robots can together provide new information on the principles governing locomotion on granular surfaces.
Robot Swarms Seen as Guardians Against Future Threats
In his interview with Reuters, Magnus Egerstedt, RIM faculty member and Schlumberger Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, suggests that swarm robotics can and will be used in security and defense where groups of robots can cover large areas.
Robot Swarms Seen as Guardians Against Future Threats
In his interview with Reuters, Magnus Egerstedt, RIM faculty member and Schlumberger Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, suggests that swarm robotics can and will be used in security and defense where groups of robots can cover large areas.
Spotlight on Healthcare Robotics at Georgia Tech
Faculty members in the Robotics & Intelligent Machines Center (RIM) at Georgia Tech are researching ways that robots can assist people with performing simple tasks on a daily basis that they cannot do by themselves. Robotics technology allows for a significant improvement in quality of life and a reduction in the cost of support by allowing people to live independently for a longer period of time. Meeting the increased demands for economical and sustainable assistive solutions is one of the primary focuses of RIM’s healthcare robotics research.
ARC - RIM Industry Day 2013
The ARC-RIM Industry Day is a workshop bringing together leaders and researchers from industry and academia to discuss challenges, opportunities, and new trends in logistics, supply chain management, display advertisement, energy efficiency, and related algorithms. Organized by the Robotics & Intelligent Machines Center (RIM) and the Algorithms & Randomness Center (ARC), the event is FREE, but pre-registration is requested by emailing Nina White.
Robots Are Not Killing Jobs
In a recent interview with Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum’s “Techwise Conversations,” Henrik Christensen, director of the Robotics & Intelligent Machines Center (RIM) at Georgia Tech, dispels many of the myths surrounding the threat of automation to the American workforce.
Robots Are Not Killing Jobs
In a recent interview with Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum’s “Techwise Conversations,” Henrik Christensen, director of the Robotics & Intelligent Machines Center (RIM) at Georgia Tech, dispels many of the myths surrounding the threat of automation to the American workforce.
Henrik Christensen Presents New Roadmap for U.S. Robotics
Undergraduate Students Conducting Research in Robotics
Ayanna Howard, Motorola Foundation Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and director of the Human-Automation Systems Laboratory (HumAnS), has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) continuing grant for her proposal to add a robotics component to Georgia Tech’s SURE program.
Georgia Tech's All-Star Lineup for National Robotics Week
April 6-14 is National Robotics Week, an annual celebration of all things automated from around the country. Hundreds of events are planned in robotics laboratories and factories to showcase the fast-growing importance of robots in the modern world, from manufacturing to health care, national defense and security to agriculture and transportation.
Engineering Style of Dance for Robots and People
A dancing robot is nothing new. A quick search on YouTube will yield videos of robots dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Gangnam Style, the Macarena and more. But at the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers are taking robots and dance to a higher level. Instead of programming a robot to copy an existing dance such as those in the online videos, Amy LaViers, a Ph.D. candidate in electrical and computer engineering, is defining the various styles of human movement and creating algorithms to reproduce them on a humanoid robot.
RIM Faculty Promotions
The Robotics & Intelligent Machine Center’s faculty members have technically diverse backgrounds and conduct innovative research to advance robotics. Recently, six of RIM’s outstanding faculty members received promotions within their academic units in the Colleges of Computing, Engineering, and Science:
Magnus Egerstedt has been appointed the Schlumberger Professor
Magnus Egerstedt has been appointed the Schlumberger Professor. Magnus joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2001 and conducts research in the areas of control theory and robotics, with particular focus on control and coordination of complex networks, such as multi-robot systems, mobile sensor networks, and cyber-physical systems. He leads the Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory, where he currently advises 15 graduate students.
"Terradynamics" Could Help Designers Predict How Legged Robots Will Move on Granular Media
Using a combination of theory and experiment, researchers have developed a new approach for understanding and predicting how small legged robots – and potentially also animals – move on and interact with complex granular materials such as sand.
Henrik Christensen Presents New Roadmap for U.S. Robotics
The Robotics Caucus Advisory Committee of the U.S. Congress hosted a briefing to present A Roadmap for U.S. Robotics: From Internet to Robotics–2013 edition.
Robot Warriors: Lethal Machines Coming of Age
On a carpet in a laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Professor Henrik Christensen's robots are hunting for insurgents. They look like cake-stands on wheels as they scuttle about. Christensen and his team at Georgia Tech are working on a project funded by the defence company BAE systems. Their aim is to create unmanned vehicles programmed to map an enemy hideout, allowing human soldiers to get vital information about a building from a safe distance.
Alan Wagner Receives Air Force Young Investigator Program Award for Social Robotics Work
Combining psychology and high-end robotics research, Alan Wagner, a research scientist in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Robotics & Intelligent Machines Center (RIM), works to create robots that will interact with a wide variety of people in as many different social situations as possible.
Talking, Walking Objects
Meeting Simon for the first time was one of the most sublime experiences I’ve had. With every coy head nod, casual hand wave and deep eye gaze, I felt he already knew me.
Simon is a humanoid robot being developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the purposes of exploring intuitive ways for people and machines to live and work alongside one another. I had designed the robot’s shell — its outward appearance — so I knew exactly what to expect, but interacting with it as a programmed and somewhat sentient creature surprised me in ways I hadn’t expected.
Seminar - Feb 6 CANCELED
The seminar has been cancelled.
Robots Assisting or Hurting Manufacturing in America?
On Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes, the show investigated the role of robotics in the American workplace. RIM Director Professor Henrik Christensen serves as an academic and research leader on the National Robotics Initiative, which was established by the White House in 2011. He explores the truth and the myths of manufacturing and robots.
Seminar -Jonathan Hurst Apr 17
A seminar will take place in the TSRB Auditorium (Tech Square), at 12 noon on Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Lunch will be provided.
Seminar - Tim Barfoot Mar 20
A seminar will take place in the Nano building, Rooms 116-118, at 12 noon on Wednesday, March 20, 2013. Lunch will be provided.