CMU's Interactive Tool Helps Novices and Experts Make Custom Robots PITTSBURGH – A new interactive design tool developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute enables both novices and experts to build customized legged or wheeled robots using 3D-printed components and off-the-shelf actuators. Using a familiar drag-and-drop interface, individuals can choose from a library of components [...]

RoboTutor, educational technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University that teaches children basic math and reading skills, has been named a semifinalist in the $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE competition. An estimated 250 million children around the world cannot read, write or do fundamental arithmetic, and many of these children are in developing countries without regular [...]

Smell PGH App Helps Pittsburghers Report Foul Odors PITTSBURGH—Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab are rolling out new features in Smell PGH, a smartphone app that helps Pittsburgh area residents collectively report foul odors and alert each other to suspicious smells that waft through city neighborhoods and suburbs. Smell PGH now includes time-lapse animations [...]

A Robotics Institute student is one of two School of Computer Science students named recipients of 2017 NVIDIA Graduate Fellowships. The company sponsors the annual program to recognize and support excellence in computing research using graphics processing units. Ph.D. student Xiaolong Wang was among the 11 fellows in the 2017 class, along with Adams Wei [...]

Now On Display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry Daisy, a six-legged robot built by a Robotics Institute spinoff company, is one of several new robots featured in “Robot Revolution,” an exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry that runs through Feb. 4, 2018. Daisy is a hexapod robot that moves with a [...]

NASA Funding Could Establish New Paradigm For Extraterrestial Robots NASA has selected lunar logistics company Astrobotic Technology, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, to develop a new class of small, lightweight rovers, called CubeRovers, capable of small-scale science and exploration on extraterrestrial surfaces. The CubeRover, weighing no more than 4.4 pounds, would establish a new [...]

One of Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Professor Howie Choset's famous snake-like robots crawled up the even more famous leg of comedian Jimmy Fallon during an April 25 appearance on NBC’s "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." "Slow down there, mister!" Fallon exclaimed as the robot reached his knee, much to the delight of the studio [...]

The Girls of Steel robotics team and the team’s lead mentor, George Kantor, both won awards at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Competition, March 15-18. The team, which includes 50 girls from 20 Pittsburgh area high schools and is sponsored by the Field Robotics Center, won the Engineering Inspiration Award, qualifying the team for its [...]