CSAIL Professor's Teach Autonomous Robot Challenge Class

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.