MIT Archives - Liwaiwai

A Better Way To Study Ocean Currents

A new machine-learning model makes more accurate predictions about ocean currents, which could help with tracking plastic pollution and oil spills, and aid in search and rescue. Computer scientists at MIT joined forces with oceanographers to develop a machine-learning model that incorporates knowledge from fluid dynamics to generate more accurate predictions about the velocities of ocean currents. This figure shows drifting buoy trajectories in the Gulf of Mexico superimposed on surface currents. The red dots mark the buoys’ positions on March 9, 2016, and the tails are 14 days long. To study ocean currents, scientists release GPS-tagged buoys in the…

An AI Challenge Only Humans Can Solve

In their new book, “Power and Progress,” Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson ask whether the benefits of AI will be shared widely or feed inequality. Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office The Dark Ages were not entirely dark. Advances in agriculture and building technology increased Medieval wealth and led to a wave of cathedral construction in Europe. However, it was a time of profound inequality. Elites captured virtually all economic gains. In Britain, as Canterbury Cathedral soared upward, peasants had no net increase in wealth between 1100 and 1300. Life expectancy hovered around 25 years. Chronic malnutrition was rampant. “We’ve…

Robotics

Open-Source Platform Simulates Wildlife For Soft Robotics Designers

Since the term “soft robotics” was adopted in 2008, engineers in the field have been building diverse representations of flexible machines useful in exploration, locomotion, rehabilitation, and even space. One source of inspiration: the way animals move in the wild. A team of MIT researchers has taken this a step further, developing SoftZoo, a bio-inspired platform that enables engineers to study soft robot co-design. The framework optimizes algorithms that consist of design, which determines what the robot will look like; and control, or the system that enables robotic motion, improving how users automatically generate outlines for potential machines. Taking a walk on the…

Miniscule Device Could Help Preserve The Battery Life Of Tiny Sensors

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have built a wake-up receiver that communicates using terahertz waves, which enabled them to produce a chip more than 10 times smaller than similar devices. Their receiver, which also includes authentication to protect it from a certain type of attack, could help preserve the battery life of tiny sensors or robots.Credits: Image: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT with figure courtesy of the researchers Scientists are striving to develop ever-smaller internet-of-things devices, like sensors tinier than a fingertip that could make nearly any object trackable. These diminutive sensors have miniscule batteries which are often nearly impossible to replace, so…

Biohybrid Robots: Recent Progress, Challenges, And Perspectives

AbstractThe past ten years have seen the rapid expansion of the field of biohybrid robotics. By combining engineered, synthetic components with living biological materials, new robotics solutions have been developed that harness the adaptability of living muscles, the sensitivity of living sensory cells, and even the computational abilities of living neurons. Biohybrid robotics has taken the popular and scientific media by storm with advances in the field, moving biohybrid robotics out of science fiction and into real science and engineering. So how did we get here, and where should the field of biohybrid robotics go next? In this perspective, we…

Drones Navigate Unseen Environments With Liquid Neural Networks

In the vast, expansive skies where birds once ruled supreme, a new crop of aviators is taking flight. These pioneers of the air are not living creatures, but rather a product of deliberate innovation: drones. But these aren’t your typical flying bots, humming around like mechanical bees. Rather, they’re avian-inspired marvels that soar through the sky, guided by liquid neural networks to navigate ever-changing and unseen environments with precision and ease. Inspired by the adaptable nature of organic brains, researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have introduced a method for robust flight navigation agents to master…

Wearable Patch Can Painlessly Deliver Drugs Through The Skin

MIT researchers have developed a wearable patch that applies painless ultrasonic waves to the skin, creating tiny channels that drugs can pass through. Image: Courtesy of the researchers The skin is an appealing route for drug delivery because it allows drugs to go directly to the site where they’re needed, which could be useful for wound healing, pain relief, or other medical and cosmetic applications. However, delivering drugs through the skin is difficult because the tough outer layer of the skin prevents most small molecules from passing through it. In hopes of making it easier to deliver drugs through the…

A Four-Legged Robotic System For Playing Soccer On Various Terrains

Researchers created DribbleBot, a system for in-the-wild dribbling on diverse natural terrains including sand, gravel, mud, and snow using onboard sensing and computing. In addition to these football feats, such robots may someday aid humans in search-and-rescue missions. Photo: Mike Grimmett/MIT CSAIL If you’ve ever played soccer with a robot, it’s a familiar feeling. Sun glistens down on your face as the smell of grass permeates the air. You look around. A four-legged robot is hustling toward you, dribbling with determination. While the bot doesn’t display a Lionel Messi-like level of ability, it’s an impressive in-the-wild dribbling system nonetheless. Researchers…

Robotics

Robotic Hand Can Identify Objects With Just One Grasp

MIT researchers developed a soft-rigid robotic finger that incorporates powerful sensors along its entire length, enabling them to produce a robotic hand that could accurately identify objects after only one grasp. Image: Courtesy of the researchers Inspired by the human finger, MIT researchers have developed a robotic hand that uses high-resolution touch sensing to accurately identify an object after grasping it just one time. Many robotic hands pack all their powerful sensors into the fingertips, so an object must be in full contact with those fingertips to be identified, which can take multiple grasps. Other designs use lower-resolution sensors spread…

Robotics

Titanic Robots Make Farming More Sustainable

MIT alumnus-founded FarmWise uses hulking, autonomous robots that resemble tractors to preserve crops while snipping weeds, eliminating the need for herbicides. Courtesy of FarmWise There’s a lot riding on farmers’ ability to fight weeds, which can strangle crops and destroy yields. To protect crops, farmers have two options: They can spray herbicides that pollute the environment and harm human health, or they can hire more workers. Unfortunately, both choices are becoming less tenable. Herbicide resistance is a growing problem in crops around the world, while widespread labor shortages have hit the agricultural sector particularly hard. Now the startup FarmWise, co-founded…

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