Models of Robotic Manipulation

Abstract: Some of my earliest work focused on robot grasping: on decomposing the grasping process into phases, examining the contacts and motions occurring in each phase, and developing conditions under which a stable grasp might be obtained while addressing initial pose uncertainty. That was the start of my interest in the physics of manipulation, which has continued until now. The early work was inspired partly by robot programming experiences, especially applications in manufacturing automation. It is possible that materials handling is going to play a similar role, as the primary application of research in autonomous manipulation, changing our perceptions of the challenges and opportunities our field.



Bio: Matt Mason earned his PhD in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from MIT in 1982. He has worked in robotics for over forty years. For most of that time Matt has been a Professor of Robotics and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He was Director of the Robotics Institute from 2004 to 2014.



Since 2014, Matt has split his time between CMU and Berkshire Grey, where he is the Chief Scientist. Berkshire Grey is a Boston-based company that produces innovative materials-handling solutions for eCommerce and logistics.



Matt is a Fellow of the AAAI and the IEEE. He won the IEEE R&A Pioneer Award, and the IEEE Technical Field Award in Robotics and Automation.