"For decades, Stanford University has been inventing the future of robotics. Back in the 1960s, that future began with an Earth-bound moon rover and one of the first artificially intelligent robots, the humbly christened Shakey. At that time, many people envisioned robots as the next generation of household helpers, loading the dishwasher and mixing martinis. From those early ambitions, though, most robots moved out of the home and to the factory floor, their abilities limited by available technology and their structures too heavy and dangerous to mingle with people.
But research into softer, gentler and smarter robots continued.
Thanks in large part to advances in computing power, robotics research these days is thriving. At Stanford alone, robots scale walls, flutter like birds, wind and swim through the depths of the earth and ocean, and hang out with astronauts in space. And, with all due respect to their ancestors, they’re a lot less shaky than they used to be.
Here we look at Stanford’s robotic legacy – the robots, the faculty who make them and the students who will bring about the future of robotics."
(Image credit: Eric Nyquist)
Stanford’s Robotics Legacy - by Taylor Kubota - Stanford News - January 16th, 2019
