Events Calendar

CS DLS: Prof. Daniela Rus

Talk Title: Programmable Matter with Self-reconfiguring Robots
Speaker: Prof. Daniela Rus
Hosts: Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme and Prof. Maja MataricAbstract:
We wish to create programmable matter by using robot modules capable of self-reconfiguration: hundreds of small modules autonomously organize and reorganize as geometric structures to best fit the terrain on which the robot has to move, the shape of the object the robot has to manipulate, or the sensing needs of the given task. Self-reconfiguration leads to versatile robots that can support multiple modalities of locomotion, manipulation, and perception.This talk will discuss the challenges of creating programmable matter, ranging from designing hardware capable of self-reconfiguration, to developing distributed controllers and planners for such systems that are scalable, adaptive, and support real-time behavior. We will discuss a spectrum of mechanical and computational capabilities for such systems and detail some recent self-reconfiguring robots.Bio:
Daniela Rus is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where she is associate director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and co-directs the MIT Center for Robotics at CSAIL. Her research interests include distributed robotics and mobile computing and her application focus includes transportation, security, environmental modeling and monitoring, underwater exploration, and agriculture.Rus is notable for spear-heading research in programmable matter by developing the several self-configuring robots. In addition, she worked with her students to has designed, control, and field autonomous underwater robots, agricultural robots that herd cattle, low-cost, early warning sensors for disaster prevention in developing countries, and teams of autonomous aerial vehicles that can monitor adaptively large environments.Rus is the recipient of the NSF Career Award and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow. She is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow and a fellow of AAAI and IEEE. Before receiving her appointment at MIT, Rus was a professor in the Computer Science Department at Dartmouth, where she founded and directed two laboratories in robotics and mobile computing.Rus earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: CS Front Desk