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Franklin W. Olin, |
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Biomimetics Robotic Research Gill Pratt,
Ph.D., Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Presentation
Description: Robots will
soon become as common as personal computers. They will do work that is
dangerous, dirty, and dull. They will also entertain us. Most importantly,
they will free us to live more meaningful lives. Many of you will become
robot engineers, helping to make all this possible. The robots you design
will have biomimetic components – parts that mimic or are inspired by
biology. There are two reasons for this – the first is that evolution has
already perfected robot designs suitable for the natural world (they're
called animals) and there's no reason to reinvent those solutions. The second
is that people have designed the artificial world to fit our own form, and
since robots must operate in that same world, it is a good idea when
designing robots to look at how we ourselves are designed. In
this talk I will describe in more detail the motivations for biomimetic
robotics, and take us on a tour of present biomimetic robots around the world.
I will end with a description of work my laboratory is doing in this field.
About the
Speaker: Before coming to
Olin, Dr. Pratt was Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science and a researcher in parallel computer hardware at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, where he received his Bachelor's, Master's, and
Doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. As a member
of MIT's AI Lab, he directed the MIT Leg Laboratory, focusing on the
development of robots with legs and devices for helping people walk. In his
research Dr. Pratt and his students emphasized "series-elastic"
actuators with more natural properties than industrial robots possess, and
"virtual model" control languages that allow natural dynamics and
active control to work synergistically. Dr. Pratt's two-legged
"dinosaur" robot was featured in a recent "Scientific
American" article. Dr. Pratt received
excellent reviews while teaching MIT's core subject in computer architecture
and has served as both a member and a mentor to several extracurricular
student project groups. He is an enthusiast of hands-on, "do-learn"
education, and has a strong interest in the societal aspects of technology,
including "green" technologies like electric cars and larger issues
like the impact of robotics on the quality of life. |
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