The word “robot” was coined by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in a 1920 play called Rossum’s Universal Robots, and is derived from the Czech robota, meaning “drudgery” or “servitude”.

Dec 19, 2025 · Robot, know thyself: New vision-based system teaches machines to understand their bodies Neural Jacobian Fields, developed by MIT CSAIL researchers, can learn to control any robot …

Apr 2, 2025 · SPROUT is a flexible robot built by MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Notre Dame researchers to assist in disaster response. Emergency responders can use the robot to navigate and map areas …

Apr 9, 2025 · A hopping, insect-sized robot can jump over gaps or obstacles, traverse rough, slippery, or slanted surfaces, and perform aerial acrobatic maneuvers, while using a fraction of the energy …

Jul 10, 2025 · Robots are helping humans in a growing number of places – from archaeological sites to disaster zones and sewers. The most recent robotic inventions can entertain people in care homes …

Nov 30, 2020 · RoboGrammar is a new system that automates and optimizes robot design. The system, developed at MIT, creates arthropod-inspired robots for traversing a variety of terrains. It could …

Jan 28, 2025 · MIT Associate Professor Luca Carlone works to give robots a more human-like perception of their environment, so they can interact with people safely and seamlessly.

Dec 12, 2024 · To a robot, though, the motto represents learning constraints, or limitations of a specific task within the machine’s environment, to do chores safely and correctly. For instance, imagine …

Oct 10, 2025 · Here, “human-robot interaction” is interpreted in the context of social robots, not industrial ones. Social robots are understood as physical machines that are autonomous (or semi …

Nov 5, 2025 · MIT researchers developed a powerful system that could help robots safely navigate unpredictable environments using only images captured from their onboard cameras.