Robotics

From stretchable electronics to miniature mobile robots, CMU engineers are collaborating across disciplines to create the next generation of robotics for human interaction. Our researchers are working to develop and improve soft and wearable robotics, legged and aerial robots, medical robotics, micro/nano-robotics, underwater robots, and IoT robots.

Manufacturing Futures Institute

Robotics videos

Robotics news

Apr 9

Robotics

Engineering beneath the surface

Students build an autonomous underwater vehicle that can perform tasks important to the maritime industry, including exploring, detecting, and manipulating objects and deploying projectiles underwater.

The Manufacturing Futures Institute empowers industry with the science and technology needed to accelerate U.S. manufacturing.

Manufacturing Futures Institute empowers U.S. industry

Nov 12

Health & Biomedicine

Biological neural circuits critical for neurodegenerative disease therapy and biohybrid robot control

To support the development of new therapies for neurodegenerative disease and advance biohybrid robots, Jessica Zhang and Victoria Webster-Wood will lead a project to develop computational tools to predict neuron growth and transport regulation.

Nov 1

Energy & Environment

Robotics for environmental innovation

A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers is seeking to understand how robotics can help engineers address environmental challenges, such as monitoring affected soils.

Sep 10

Robotics

New moves for self-defense: How plants can inspire future Softbotic design

Complex and sophisticated, a plant’s mechanical systems could be the key to more advanced biohybrid softbotic designs.

Aug 21

Robotics

Carnegie Mellon core partner in new center to improve robot dexterity selected to receive up to $52 million

Carmel Majidi will lead a research thrust in a new multi-institutional collaboration to launch an NSF ERC dedicated to revolutionizing the ability of robots to amplify human labor.

Aug 19

Robotics

It’s an ant… it’s a robot… it’s Picotaur! The unrivaled micro robot

Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University have created the first legged robot of its size to run, turn, push loads and climb miniature stairs.

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Research paper

Increasing investments by private foundations and the federal government are propelling MFI and its partners as leaders in the advancement of robotic applications for manufacturing.

Robotic innovation to transform U.S. manufacturing

Jul 18

Robotics

Sea slugs: what can we learn from them?

Studying Aplysia californica, or sea slugs, can tell us a lot about neuromuscular systems and open up avenues for more controlled animal experiments.

Research paper

May 13

Robotics

Manipulation technology makes home-helper robot possible

New locomotion and manipulation technology from Ding Zhao’s lab will enable four-legged robots to lend a hand in the not-so-distant future.

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Feb 13

Robotics

RoboTool enables creative tool use in—you guessed it—robots

Large language models enable robots to “brainstorm” creative tool use and perform seemingly impossible tasks.

Dec 22

Robotics

Drones CAN navigate dynamic environments

Novel drone navigation technology developed by Kenji Shimada was put to the test in an active Japanese tunnel construction site, enabling drones to approximate where a collision may occur and prevent it.

A team of mechanical engineering researchers create “Mugatu,” the first steerable bipedal robot with only one motor.

Big picture, small robot

Nov 29

Artificial Intelligence

Chop, chop: Improving food prep with the power of AI

Researchers at CMU combined two vision foundational models—models trained on large visual data sets—to help a robot arm recognize the shape and the type of fruit and vegetable slices.

Nov 20

Energy & Environment

Dowd Fellowship encourages ambitious student research

Four Ph.D. students in the College of Engineering have received funding to pursue research on valuable, relatively unexplored topics.

Nov 8

Advanced Manufacturing

FLOTUS Touts Pittsburgh as Workforce Hub at CMU’s Mill 19

First Lady Jill Biden and U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su recently visited Mill 19, the discovery workspace where Carnegie Mellon engineers and scientists conduct advanced manufacturing research. Biden and Su highlighted workforce investments in Pittsburgh, which is one of five newly created Workforce Hubs in the U.S.

Nov 6

Robotics

450-million-year-old organism finds new life in Softbotics

Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitids, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem.

Oct 6

Health & Biomedicine

A new course for prosthetics care

Between his studies, a teaching opportunity, and nonprofit work, mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Jonathan Shulgach looks to reimagine the experience of receiving medical care by bringing patients closer to the process.