The Robotics Science and Systems (6.141) class taught by Professors Daniela Rus, Seth Teller and Nicholas Roy focused on building robots that can operate autonomously to build structures in new and unknown environments. Specifically students were required to engineer robots that were able to explore the environment and find materials for building a shelter. The shelters could range in complexity from a wall to a room-like structure. "The students worked very hard in small teams and built creative robots with implementations of a suite of algorithms for robot localization, navigation, and assembly control," Rus said of the students. The potential applications for this type of engineering include; autonomous navigation with dynamic obstacles, searching and rescuing victims at a disaster area, tidying up a room, clearing the dishes in a cafeteria, delivering packages in an office environment, and fetching a glass from the kitchen.
VoxNet advances acoustic monitoring technology in field research
CSAIL’s Lewis Girod and Samuel Madden are addressing the problem of acoustic environmental interference to try to record animal noises loud and clear. The project in question is called VoxNet, which functions as a platform for distributed acoustic monitoring applications. It is sturdy enough to survive in rough environments, has no wires, and has its own internal orientation system, eschewing the use of GPS. All of these factors are designed to make it self-supporting and interactive to facilitate work in the field. Each of the nodes is self-contained and portable; working together, they form a network to monitor and map the aural lay of the land. To learn more about the project, click here.
CSAIL’s Lewis Girod and Samuel Madden are addressing the problem of acoustic environmental interference to try to record animal noises loud and clear. The project in question is called VoxNet, which functions as a platform for distributed acoustic monitoring applications. It is sturdy enough to survive in rough environments, has no wires, and has its own internal orientation system, eschewing the use of GPS. All of these factors are designed to make it self-supporting and interactive to facilitate work in the field. Each of the nodes is self-contained and portable; working together, they form a network to monitor and map the aural lay of the land. To learn more about the project, click here.