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The Distributed Robotics Laboratory began as the Dartmouth Robotics Laboratory in the Computer Science Department at Dartmouth College. There the Molecule and Crystal robots were developed, along with several other robot systems including the Inchworm mobile robot, a desktop paper manipulation robot, and a set of robots which cooperated to manipulate furniture. The lab moved to MIT CSAIL in 2004 when our PI Daniela Rus became a professor in the EECS department at MIT. We are currently located on the third floor of the Stata Center, room 32-376.

Our work spans areas including modular and self-reconfiguring robots, distributed algorithms and systems of self-organizing robots, networks of robots and sensors for first-responders, mobile sensor networks, animals and robots, cooperative underwater robotics, desktop robotics, and forming, moving, and navigating sparse 2D and 3D structures.

   RA Available in Coordinated Manipulation for Assembly; contact rak@csail.mit.edu, rus@csail.mit.edu

Contents for This Page 1 Projects 2 Collaborative Projects 3 News 4 Funding 5 Workshops 6 Address, Contact, and Directions

Projects

Error creating thumbnail: Project iDiary	Cow Herding with Virtual Fences	Guiding People and Robots with Sensor Networks	Adaptive Architectures for Modular Robots	Distributed Control Algorithms for Networked Mobile Robots
Distributed Manipulation with Touch Sensitive Rope	AMOUR (Autonomous Modular Optical Underwater Robot	Miche: Modular Self-Disassembly	Robot Pebbles	The Self-Reconfiguring Robotic Molecule
The Self-Reconfiguring Crystal Robot	[[Generic Distributed Self-Reconfiguration Algorithms with Cellular Automata	Modular Reconfiguring Structures with Shady3D	Vertical Truss Climbing with Shady	Modular Reconfiguring Structures with MultiShady
The Inchworm Robot for Navigating 3D Steel Web Environments	Paper Manipulator	Visolate: Voronoi Toolpaths for PCB Mechanical Etch	Early Warning System for River Flood Detection	Accurate Localization System for Indoor Environments
Traffic Information System	Deployment and Optimization of Wireless ad-hoc Communication Networks	The Distributed Robotics Garden	Networked Quad-Rotor Flying Robots in Multi-Agent Systems	Locomotion through Programmable Stiffness
Tracking Objects at Sea: Object Identification and Tracking using HS Histograms	Coordinated Construction	Eye-in-Hand Visual Servoing Curriculum	Baking Cookies with the WillowGarage PR2	Environment Characterization for Non-recontaminating Frontier-Based Robotic Exploration
Markov-based Redistribution Policy Model for Future Urban Mobility Networks	Programmable Smart Sheet	Planning to Fold Multiple Objects from a Single Smart Sheet	Collision Avoidance for Persistent Monitoring in Multi-Robot Systems with Intersecting Trajectories	Generating Informative Trajectories for Robots Persistently Monitoring Unknown Environments
Error creating thumbnail: Wing Traversing Robot: using electro permanent magnets to connect and control robots through a seperating surface	Error creating thumbnail: Autonomous assembly of Ikea furniture using KuKa youbots

Collaborative Projects

Chembots

EFRI

Programmable Matter

SMARTS

News

• June 2013 --- Robot Pebbles featured on NPR
• May 2013 --- UP: The Umbrella Projected covered by Boston Herald, WBUR, Boston Globe, Boston.com, CNET, Network World, Boston Inno, Wicked Local, Weekly Dig, and The Verge
• August 14, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in The Inquisitr
• August 13, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Los Angeles Times
• August 13, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Businessweek
• August 13, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Huffington Post
• August 12, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Gizmag
• August 10, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Time
• August 10, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Engadget
• August 10, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Planetsave
• August 10, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in Discovery News
• August 9, 2012 --- Meshworm robot featured in BBC News
• July 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured in Hemispheres Inflight Magazine
• June 10, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured in CBC Spark Radio Show
• May 28, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured in IEEE Spectrum
• April 5, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured in Scientific American
• April 4, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured in live interview with Kyle Gilpin on BBC World News Today
• April 3, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured on Huffington Post
• April 2, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured on Slashdot
• April 2, 2012 --- Robot Pebbles featured on New Scientist
• September 20, 2011 --- Our collaboration with the dance company Pilobolus is featured in The Economist.
• June 4 - August 21, 2011 --- Robot Pebbles on display as part of the Modern By Design exhibit at the Atlanta High Museum of Art.
• July 18, 2011 --- Our collaboration with the dance company Pilobolus is featured in The Wall Street Journal at Metropolis Blog. A direct link to the the .pdf is available here.
• December 17, 2010 --- Our collaboration with the dance company Pilobolus is documented on their blog at Pilobolus Blog. A direct link to the the .pdf is available here.
• July 7, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Discovery News.
• June 29, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the CNET.
• June 29, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Register.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the MSNBC.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Nature News.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Phys.org
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the New Scientist.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Scientific American.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Popular Science.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the ZDNET.
• June 28, 2010 --- Our Programmable matter by folding is featured in the Inventorspot
• December 21, 2009 --- Our robot Shady is mentioned in the Boston Globe
• December 10, 2009 --- The Distributed Robotic Garden was featured in the Economist.
• December 9, 2009 --- Our robot Shady is featured in IEEE Spectrum's Automation Blog
• November 3, 2009 --- The programmable matter Pebbles and Miche projects were featured in IEEE Spectrum Special Report: Robots for Real
• December 2, 2008 --- The animal modeling and control project was featured in Fortune
• November 24, 2008 --- The Distributed Robotic Garden was featured in the New York Times.
• July 9, 2008 -- Our paper "Social Control of Herd Animals by Integration of Artificially Controlled Congeners" received the Best Paper Award at the 10th International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB), Osaka, Japan.
• July 2, 2008 -- An article about our animals and robots project appeared in the The Economist.
• June 30, 2008 -- An article about our animals and robots project appeared in the Boston Globe.
• June 6, 2008 -- Our animals and robots project is featured on the USDA Agricultural Research Service website.
• December 10, 2007 -- Our robot Shady is featured on the AT&T Tech Channel
• December 3, 2005 -- Our robot AMOUR swam for malaria and raised money for 272 mosquito nets.
• Dartmouth News -- September 14, 2005: Dartmouth researchers build world's smallest mobile robot
• NSF Press Release 04-121 -- September 16, 2004: Proving That Shape-Shifting Robots Can Get a Move On
• Boston Globe -- December 28, 2003: Mother of Invention: Virtual cow fences and self-reconfiguring automatons are just two of MIT roboticist Daniela Rus's futuristic visions

Funding

Support for the lab is provided by

• Boeing -- Distributed Control and Learning in Networked Robot Systems
• DARPA
• Intel
• National Science Foundation
• Magswitch

Workshops

ICRA 2013 Workshop

Address, Contact, and Directions

To contact us by email, select a person.

Distributed Robotics Lab
MIT CSAIL
32 Vassar Street, 32-376
Cambridge, MA 02139

Telephone: 617-253-6532
Fax: 617-253-6849

Walking Directions: Use the entrance nearest the corner of Vassar and Main Streets (Gates entrance). Take the stairs on your left up to third floor or proceed to the elevators on your right and go to the third floor. Continue walking past the stairway to the fourth floor and enter the lab.