When industrial robots were first introduced in the early 1960s – initially on car assembly lines – computers were still in their infancy, so robots were designed to perform only the most rigidly defined set of repetitive movements. Despite half a century of exponential growth in computing power, this is essentially still the state of industrial robotics. But that may not last long, according to Rodney Brooks, who left his tenured position as Panasonic robotics professor at MIT last year to focus on his newest company.
“Brooks’ mouth is sealed,” as Economist i posted this last week what exactly he and Heartland Robotics are located in a converted warehouse in South Boston’s Innovation District. However, venture capitalists have already invested $32 million, betting that whatever they produce will mark a completely fresh direction in the field.
Brooks, now president and chief technology officer of Heartland Robotics, spoke at MIT on April 20, addressing a recently formed student entrepreneurship group called do.it@MIT.
When it comes to robotics, “in a few decades, today’s technology will look extremely primitive,” Brooks told a crowd of about 400 people, mostly students, gathered at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium. He also added that “you will invent” fresh robotic technologies that will change this field.
Works downstairs
The former director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) described growing up in Adelaide, Australia. Although he had never heard of MIT, he was an avid tinkerer who became intrigued with robotics early on.
Brooks recalls that in the early 1960s he built a very primitive computer using vacuum tubes that had a total random-access memory capacity of 64 bits (or 8 bytes) and took a year and a half to build. He then built a very elementary robot that stayed in his mother’s garden shed for the next 30 years, he said.
After watching the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, he became intrigued by HAL, an knowledgeable and responsive movie computer. “He was a murderous psychopath,” Brooks joked, but it was still an impressive portrait of machine intelligence.
Brooks first became aware of the Institute when he read that MIT professor Marvin Minsky was a consultant to director Stanley Kubrick; he immediately decided he wanted to go to MIT.
It took some time to realize this dream: Brooks was denied admission to graduate school at MIT and was rejected again – twice – for faculty positions after earning his doctorate at Stanford University. “Rejection is not the end,” he advised students, emphasizing that it is worth persevering in pursuing your dreams: “Persistence pays off.”
In 1994, after his third attempt, Brooks finally landed a faculty appointment at MIT and quickly began turning the world of robotics research upside down.
Out of control
Brooks’ first major contribution to the field came from a nature-based insight: the idea of building swarms of compact, inexpensive robots with autonomous control systems. Originally conceived as an alternative to NASA’s proposals for massive planetary rovers, the concept was described in a research paper titled “Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.” Shortly thereafter, Brooks became the lead character in the documentary of the same name directed by Oscar-winning director Errol Morris.
The concept of smaller, simpler robots eventually influenced NASA and led to Brooks’ work on the first mobile robotic device ever to land on another planet: a Mars rover called Sojourner.
Working with MIT students and graduate students, Brooks has developed a variety of robots that can observe people’s facial expressions and gestures and make inferences about their meaning and emotional state—for example, sensing when people are frustrated or bored. The goal then and now was to create robots that could interact more easily with humans.
Over the years, Brooks founded several companies; his first major success was what became known as iRobot and launched a robot vacuum cleaner called Roomba. The company also produces military robots that are widely used by US forces to defuse explosives and explore hazardous areas.
He believes Brooks’ latest concept of next-generation robots could revolutionize manufacturing. Instead of huge machines that must be kept in protective cages to prevent them from injuring nearby workers, he envisions smaller, more agile and more responsive robots that could work alongside humans to lend a hand them with tasks. The fresh robots, he says, will compare with today’s lumbering industrial robots in much the same way that the iPhone compares with the earlier room-sized mainframe computer.
Brooks isn’t revealing anything yet about what his fresh robots will look like or what they’ll be able to do. However, judging by his comments at MIT, they should not be expected to look similar to humans. “If you make them too human, people’s expectations will increase and they will be easily disappointed,” he said. “You don’t want it to look like Einstein!”