MIT Professor of Robotics (Emeritus) Rodney Brooks has been honored with one of the NEC C&C Foundation Awards for 2021, for contributions to developing the neocognitron, a prototype for the core technology of today’s artificial intelligence (AI). This was enabled by using “knowledge of the visual primary cortex in the brain to engineering more than 40 years ago, and introducing subsumption architecture for robot control and promoting the practical use of autonomous mobile robots.”
In the 1960s, industrial robots began to appear on the factory floor as a more efficient alternative to manual workers for repetitive assembly line tasks in the production process. But even before this, people have long been dreaming of personal robots capable of doing arduous everyday tasks and robots capable of conducting surveys and removing dangerous objects from disaster sites and other hazardous environments that are inaccessible to humans.
In 1986, Prof. Brooks introduced subsumption architecture, which is associated with behavior-based robotics. He conducted research and development of autonomous robots and he blazed a trail as a robotics entrepreneur, introducing the world to practical autonomous mobile robots and creating a market for service robots. His tireless commitment to making the dream of autonomously functioning robots into a reality makes him a worthy recipient of the C&C Prize.
Brooks is a robotics entrepreneur and is currently the CTO and co-founder of Robust AI. Before that he was Founder, Chairman and CTO of Rethink Robotics, Founder, former Board Member (1990 - 2011) and former CTO (1990 - 2008) of iRobot Corp (Nasdaq: IRBT). He is the former Director (1997 - 2007) of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and then the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He received degrees in pure mathematics from the Flinders University of South Australia and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1981. He has published many papers in computer vision, artificial intelligence, robotics, and artificial life.
He is the recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award (2015) and the Computers and Thought Award (1991).
The prize ceremony and acceptance speeches will be held on Monday, November 29 from 16:00 at the ANA InterContinental Tokyo which will be streamed live to those who apply at the Foundation’s website.
