The Breakdown Malfunctioning humanoids can hurt people, and improved safety measures are essential as these robots become more common in daily life. CMU and Siemens partnered to create a method to determine the "safe stoppability" of humanoids. They also defined conditions where it's safe to stop a humanoid using simulation, resulting in Proactive Refinement of [...]
The Breakdown: LAMP helps multiple robots collaborate to move objects. The system enables the robots to navigate crowded spaces and coordinate their movements. It could allow for more efficient workflows in warehouses and other complex environments. * * * Jiaoyang Li (left) and Shuai Zhou (right) are developing LAMP, a system that helps teams [...]
The Breakdown Researchers used generative AI to turn text prompts into 3D-printed tactile graphics. Text2TactileGraphics creates raised shapes and textures to help convey visual information to users who are blind or have low vision. The research team tested the tool with participants from VisAbility Pittsburgh and the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians. * * [...]
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University will develop AI-based tools that will enable autonomous laboratories to work together as one connected research ecosystem. The project has been selected to receive funding by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the Genesis Mission.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University will develop a new artificial intelligence framework to better identify critical minerals in the ground, increasing America’s access to these valuable materials and reducing the cost and time for exploration and extraction.
The Breakdown In 18% of cases, Claude, GPT-5 and Gemini fabricated medical diagnoses, despite supporting images being omitted. The AI models used demographic-based clinical assumptions to invent these diagnoses. CMU research emphasizes the need for demographic sensitivity testing and verification before deploying AI tools in medical systems. * * * Siddharth Vohra is in [...]
The Breakdown: RIO lets researchers use the same software across different robots, reducing the need to rebuild code for each new platform. This functionality speeds up robot setup and lets researchers spend more time developing and testing robot behaviors. The system helps accelerate robotics research and real-world deployment. * * * Researchers set up [...]
The Breakdown: VideoManip teaches robots manipulation skills using videos of people interacting with objects. It reconstructs movements and estimates how people make contact with objects. The system helps robots learn new skills without time-consuming, human-operated demonstrations. * * * Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science are developing a new way for robots [...]
The Breakdown: World2Rules learns patterns of risky aircraft behavior from real airport operations and incident data. It explains its warnings in simple terms that are easy for humans to understand. World2Rules is designed to work alongside existing prediction systems to enhance aircraft safety. * * * When managing airport traffic, small errors can lead to [...]
A research group at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) will host the latest phase of the Vision-Language-Navigation (VLN) Challenge, bringing researchers together to enable robots to understand and act on human instructions in the real world — one of robotics’ most famously difficult pursuits. This year’s challenge pushes beyond earlier versions by removing “ground [...]
The Breakdown: LiveSplats lets audiences experience sports events in 3D. Fans can choose their own camera angles for an immersive experience instead of watching on a flatscreen. The system uses advanced rendering techniques to recreate scenes with high visual fidelity. * * * LiveSplats allows fans to follow sports events from any angle using [...]
The Breakdown Sim2Reason trains AI in simulated physics environments instead of using static text data. The system generates unlimited, high-quality training data from virtual worlds. The results improve real-world reasoning, including solving advanced physics problems. * * * Researchers in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science are rethinking how artificial intelligence learns about [...]
The Breakdown: iTagPDF automatically adds accessibility metadata to LaTeX-based PDFs. It combines visual layout analysis with original source document information. The system improves accuracy and reduces the need for manual tagging. * * * Researchers in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science have developed a system that automatically improves PDF accessibility. Although PDFs [...]
The Breakdown: A CMU study followed blind participants navigating a museum with a robotic guide. It revealed that navigation strategies shift from moment to moment in unpredictable environments. The findings highlight the need to design assistive technologies that adapt to users’ changing decisions in real time. * * * Assistive navigation robots are only as [...]
The Breakdown: Super Odometry helps robots keep their sense of direction when smoke, darkness or dust block their cameras. The system allows robots to rely on internal motion sensors when they can’t see clearly. In real-world tests, it kept robots moving safely through tough conditions like stairs, low light and smoke. *** When a drone [...]
From the depths of the ocean to the craters of the moon, Carnegie Mellon University has spent more than 40 years designing robots for the most extreme environments. On Feb. 27, the university will open the Robotics Innovation Center (RIC), a 150,000-square-foot facility built to scale that research for the next generation of autonomous systems.
A new report from Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab examines how steelmaking influences economic opportunity and environmental conditions in southwestern Pennsylvania. The report combines employment and demographic data with advanced air pollution modeling to analyze how employment at steelmaking facilities aligns with long-term economic conditions in the Mon Valley, a group of municipalities along the [...]
The Breakdown: New RI software works with a handheld imaging tool to map skin texture in 3D. The software turns subtle skin surface changes into measurable data. This research could help clinicians track skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, monitor treatment and evaluate skincare product effectiveness. * * * Work from Carnegie Mellon University may [...]
Public art, especially murals, can be fleeting. But Pittsburgh native Richard Palmer, a longtime collaborator with Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab, has spent the last five years using innovative CMU technology to ensure the city's art and public murals won't be lost to history. The interactive Pittsburgh Public Art archive map uses yellow pins [...]
Aditya Sripada (left) and Abhishek Warrier (right) Curiosity allows humans to pull ideas from fiction and give life to them in the real world. For Carnegie Mellon University alumni Aditya Sripada and Abhishek Warrier, a question inspired by a fictional robot in the film "Interstellar" served as the impetus for building, testing and [...]
The Breakdown: A caregiving robot that responds to spoken instructions while performing physical tasks may make robots easier to use and understand. The robot explains its actions, listens to feedback and adjusts in real time. CMU researchers tested the robot with residents at an independent living facility. *** Residents at Baptist Senior Family's Providence Point, [...]
The Breakdown The BFM-Zero system lets humanoid robots switch seamlessly between many skills. It relies on unsupervised reinforcement learning, allowing robots to explore, generalize and self-improve. The system moves robotics closer to general-purpose humanoids that can adapt safely in everyday environments. *** Humanoid robots in a lab at Carnegie Mellon University don't fall over when [...]
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new kind of lens that can bring an entire scene into sharp focus at once — no matter how far away or close different parts of the scene are.
Robots took to the runway — strutting, spinning and dancing — in a fashion show that brought art and engineering together to rethink how humans and machines might coexist. Draped in metallic fabric and sculptural garments, the robots appeared alongside human partners in a rare performance that blended engineering with artistic expression. The robot fashion [...]
Rumaisa Azeem and Andrew Hundt, co-first authors of the paper. The Breakdown: Robots powered by popular AI models failed multiple safety and discrimination tests. The tests revealed deeper risks, including bias and unsafe physical behavior. The researchers call for regular risk assessments before AI systems control real-world robots. *** Robots powered by popular [...]
The Breakdown SPOT helps robots understand their surroundings using 3D camera data. The system assists robots as they determine what objects to move and where to place them to reach a goal. SPOT enables intuitive, goal-driven robotic planning similar to how humans organize or clean a space. *** Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute [...]
Carnegie Mellon researchers will collaborate on a federally funded project to wholly rethink and redesign wheelchairs to incorporate new technologies and offer greater mobility.
The Breakdown: Researchers developed a model that converts data into precise 3D maps. Trained on real-world scenes, the model captures both small details and large spaces with high precision. The research moves robotics closer to human-like spatial reasoning. *** Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute (RI) and Meta Reality Labs have built a [...]
The NSF Convergence Accelerator phase two kickoff meeting was held in Pittsburgh in July and brought the team together for knowledge transfer, strategy discussions, planning and demos. Work led by Carnegie Mellon University researchers to design better robotic hands for use in health, agriculture and manufacturing will receive additional support from the U.S. [...]
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science will contribute to a newly launched National Science Foundation (NSF) AI Research Institute to develop artificial intelligence assistants capable of trustworthy, sensitive and context-aware interactions with people.
Fusing artificial intelligence and imagination, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science have developed a tool that uses text prompts to help people — and even robots — bring ideas to life with Lego bricks.
Carnegie Mellon University faculty and students recently experienced something few ever have: weightlessness. Aboard a plane that follows an unusual flight path – steep climbs followed by dramatic dives – members of the Robotics Exploration Lab in CMU's Robotics Institute (RI) put their research through critical tests. During each parabolic arc, the plane creates about [...]
After scoring a goal, soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will run to the sideline, leap into the air, spin 180 degrees, land with arms outstretched and shout “Siu.” When LeBron James hits a clutch shot, he celebrates with the “Silencer,” rhythmically stomping his feet while forcefully pushing down with his arms to quiet any question of [...]
Every day, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) handles tens of thousands of flights. Airspace traffic not only involves commercial planes, but helicopters, experimental lightcraft, freight carriers and an increasing number of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). As air traffic density increases, so does the need for highly precise collision avoidance and traffic management systems to [...]
Two sailors use small amphibious robots to perform real-time mapping and navigation around a lakeshore. In another exercise, sailors monitor a robot reconnaissance vehicle crawling through a maze. They reveal a simulated hazardous object in the field. These scenes aren’t from military training, but from a final training competition led by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy (CMRA). [...]
Jiaoyang Li, assistant professor at the Robotics Institute in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, has earned the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The CAREER Program grants some of NSF’s most prestigious awards to early-career faculty who show exemplary dedication to the mission of their institution and act as [...]
Trees, vegetation, rocks, unpredictable terrain and the lack of clearly-defined roads — or roads at all — won’t stop an autonomous, off-road vehicle developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. As self-driving taxis, trucks and other vehicles pop up on city streets and highways, challenges remain for autonomous vehicles designed for mining, search [...]
Researchers from the Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University introduced a novel method for fabricating functional flat-to-shape objects using a computer-controlled sewing machine. The team includes Sapna Tayal, undergraduate student in the School of Design; Lea Albaugh, Mark Stehlik postdoctoral teaching fellow at HCII; James McCann, associate professor [...]
Robots with human-level dexterity have the potential to revolutionize object manipulation and reconstruction tasks, but achieving this level of dexterity comes with challenges, particularly when it comes to robots handling a wide variety of low-texture objects with high precision. To address this challenge and push the boundaries of current robotic tactile sensing, RI Ph.D student [...]
Howie Choset, Kavčić-Moura Professor of Computer Science at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute has been elected as a 2024 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. Choset is being recognized for “distinguished contributions to the field [...]
On Friday, March 7, the Textiles Lab at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, led by Associate Professor Jim McCann hosted a “Hard Textiles” lab jam. The lab jams show the unique ways textiles and technology interact, showcase the possible directions of future research and give the campus community an opportunity to see inside the lab [...]
Researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created CHARCHA ( Computer Human Assessment for Recreating Characters with Human Actions), a secure and personalized verification protocol that allows an individual’s likeness to appear in generative video content. The team was inspired to create CHARCHA to respond to ethical issues [...]
An aerial rescue vehicle developed by a team of students and faculty advisors at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute AirLab will advance to the next stage of the GoAERO Competition. The Tartan Air Rescue team and its TRAAV-160 flyer was named a Stage 1 winner of the competition along with 10 other teams. Tartan [...]
An SCS researcher is using robotics to speed up e-waste recycling for flat-screen displays. A researcher from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science is using robotics to improve e-waste recycling. E-waste is one of the fastest-growing types of waste in the world, with an estimated 62 million tons produced in 2022 alone. [...]
Robots deployed in the home carry immense potential to improve people’s quality of life. Robots for cleaning, companionship, security, healthcare needs, and more can travel through home environments and assist with a multitude of tasks, making human-robot interaction an area of particular interest to many roboticists. However, despite the convenience of in-home robots, there lies [...]
Sheng-Yu Wang, fifth-year Ph.D. at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. Sheng-Yu Wang, fifth-year Ph.D. student at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, has received a Google Fellowship for his work in data attribution for text-to-image models. Wang is advised by Jun-Yan Zhu, assistant professor at the Robotics Institute. The Google Ph.D. Fellowship [...]
Researchers from the Resilient Intelligent Systems Lab (RISLab) at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and the National Robotics and Engineering Center (NREC) have received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR) 2024 for their work titled Rapid quadrotor navigation in diverse environments using an onboard depth camera. SSRR hosts [...]
A research team at Carnegie Mellon teamed up with Meta FAIR, the University of California, Berkeley, Technical University Dresden in Germany and the Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI) to propose NeuralFeels, a machine learning model that combines vision and touch sensing on a robot hand to reconstruct and track unseen objects. Traditional sensing [...]
The framework allows the robot to create photorealistic scene representations in low-light environments. Robots lift heavy loads in warehouses, deliver meals to diners, and even tackle housework. However, a lot of robotic work goes unseen – quite literally. Robots and autonomous vehicles are routinely deployed for critical tasks such as exploration, inspection, transportation, [...]
Greg Armstrong (manager) and Leonardo Mouta (student worker) calibrate robots in the AI Maker Space. At the Carnegie Mellon University AI Maker Space, interdisciplinary collaboration thrives. Here, a biology student might work alongside a computer science major, while across the room, a business student brainstorms with an artist. The only prerequisite? Curiosity. In [...]
What if the future of energy could be as limitless as the stars? As nuclear fission powers today's reactors, researchers are looking toward nuclear fusion as a cleaner, safer, and long-lasting source of energy. Nuclear power plants are largely considered as one of the most reliable sources of energy. Inside the plants, reactors use fission [...]
Many people learn how to ride a bike at some point in their lives. When children are learning, adults can only guide them to a certain point. A large portion of developing this new skill depends on independent trial and error from the child. After days of practice, and perhaps a fall or two, children [...]
