Academics and Research

Feature Articles

GTRI Wins Contract to Develop Technology Roadmap for Unmanned and Autonomous Systems

A one-year $430,000 award, funded through the U.S. Army at White Sands Missile Range, has been awarded to Georgia Tech Research Institute for the development of a test and evaluation roadmap for unmanned and autonomous systems. The roadmap will address all five major unmanned and autonomous systems domains, including airborne systems, ground based systems and underwater systems, as well as sea surface and space based systems.

Meet Nexi, the Media Lab’s Latest Robot and Internet Star

The Personal Robotics Group at MIT Media Lab, headed by Director Cynthia Breazeal, known for the famous Kismet expressive robot, has a new star. Nexi MDS (mobile, dexterous, social), is a complete mobile robot with a fully expressive face that can engage directly with humans.

Opinions

Penn Engineering Receives Grant to Lead Robotics Consortium

The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science has received the largest single award in the School’s 156-year history to help create the fundamental networks and technologies that will put unmanned machines on the front lines of battle.

Vendor Spotlight

Bringing Second Life To Life: Researchers Create Character With Reasoning Abilities of a Child

A group of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are working to change engineer video game characters with the capacity to have beliefs and to reason about the beliefs of others. The characters will be able to predict and manipulate the behavior of even human players, with whom they will directly interact in the real, physical world, according to the team.