tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/185112760 2007-10-30 13:02:21 -0400 kino Micro-interview with Joe Cascio. 41 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/185089140 2008-05-01 17:27:19 -0400 MIT ZigZag <strong><a href="http://web.mit.edu/magloa/">MAGLOA - Massachusetts Academic Gaming League of America</a></strong><br /> The Massachusetts Academic Games League of America (MAGLOA) is an MIT student-run and community organization dedicated to developing “Thinking Kids” of character, excellence, honor, and integrity. The main mission of the league is to prepare public school students for learning beyond the classroom and to get them excited about academic learning and competition. 196 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/185043260 2008-01-30 13:31:52 -0500 MIT Video Productions Take a video tour of the International Space Station with MIT Alum Lt. Col. Mike Fincke 621 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/185022360 2008-01-22 15:48:32 -0500 MIT Video Productions Spinal cord injuries, serious stroke and severe traumatic brain injuries affect more than 5 million Americans at a total cost of $65 billion a year in treatment. <p>Rodents blinded by a severed tract in their brains' visual system had their sight partially restored within weeks, thanks to a tiny biodegradable scaffold invented by MIT bioengineers and neuroscientists.</p><p> This technique, which involves giving brain cells an internal matrix on which to regrow, just as ivy grows on a trellis, may one day help patients with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and stroke. </p><p> The study, which will appear in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of March 13-17, is the first that uses nanotechnology to repair and heal the brain and restore function of a damaged brain region. </p><p>Text by: Deborah Halber, MIT News Office</p> 252 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/184992500 2008-01-22 15:46:52 -0500 MIT Video Productions During the last year we completed the development of a small, high-performance robotic gripper to be <br />used in brain-controlled grasping experiments. The 1 degree-of-freedom (dof) back-driveable gripper is <br />designed to be mounted on the end of a Phantom 3.0 (Sensable Technologies)--a 3 dof backdriveable <br />robot that is normally used as a haptic interface--and the combined 4 dof robotic manipulator (gripper + <br />Phantom) is intended for reaching and grasping experiments in which the robot is controlled by neural <br />signals from electrodes implanted in a monkey's brain. These experiments require a high performance <br />manipulator and our goal in the gripper development was to create a robotic end effector with <br />performance that is comparable to and compatible with the Phantom. 247 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/184949620 2008-01-22 16:18:49 -0500 MIT Video Productions Welcome to the Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics, less formally known as the Touch Lab, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Touch Lab was founded by Dr. Mandayam A. Srinivasan in 1990. The goals of research conducted in the "Touch Lab" are to understand human haptics, develop machine haptics, and enhance human-machine interactions in virtual reality and teleoperator systems. The image below shows the relationship between the different areas of Touch Lab research. A human senses and controls the position of the finger tip, while a robot exerts forces to simulate contact with a virtual object. Both systems have sensors (nerves, encoders), processors (brain, computer), and actuators (muscles, motors). 233 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/184889300 2008-01-22 16:19:22 -0500 MIT Video Productions In spring 2000, 13 graduating MIT seniors developed and tested three mini-satellites that could lead the way to similar devices that fly in formation, much like Thunderbirds in an Air Force show. The range of potential applications includes a space telescope more powerful than the Hubble. The satellites, called Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES), are the size of volleyballs, and they allow researchers to test a variety of technologies key to formation flying. <p>Two of the devices, which communicate with each other and a computer, were tested aboard NASA's KC-135 airplane in February 2000 and again in March. The KC-135 allows satellites (and researchers) to become essentially weightless for short periods of time. The team successfully operated two SPHERES at the same time inside the plane, and collected data that will help improve the devices.</p><p>"Rather than fly one large, expensive satellite, the idea is to network together several small ones, much like how computers progressed from large mainframes to networked PCs," said Associate Professor David W. Miller. The application of interest to the SPHERES team is a high resolution space telescope created by stringing several tiny satellites outfitted with mirrors across the sky. Professor Miller and Associate Professor Dava J. Newman, both of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, led the work.</p> 227 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/184813400 2008-01-22 15:47:32 -0500 MIT Video Productions <p>Leaving stabilization of the helicopter to an automatic control system, the pilot issued high-level commands – go higher, move sideways and turn, go slightly lower. Although the feat appeared simple, Associate Professor Eric Feron, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Vladislav Gavrilets, chief engineer for the helicopter project, demonstrated a complex maneuver never before performed autonomously by a helicopter. </p><p>The robotic helicopter, outfitted with a video camera so it can take a bird's-eye view of the Institute, rolled 180 degrees, flew upside-down for an instant, and then completed a half-loop to end up flying upright in the opposite direction. This maneuver, called a split-S, allows an aircraft to reverse direction quickly in a horizontally confined space. It is one of a variety of aggressive, agile maneuvers that the next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be expected to perform in military combat. Previously, such stunts required the skill of an elite pilot. The technology developed by the MIT team makes it possible for anyone to operate an aerobatic craft.</p> 201 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/184716200 2008-01-22 15:48:19 -0500 MIT Video Productions The humble snail, trailed by its ribbon of slime, now has its first robotic counterpart in research at MIT that could lead to new forms of locomotion for machines. Assistant Professor Annette "Peko" Hosoi and her colleagues in the Mechanical Engineering Department — graduate student Brian Chan, undergrads Susan Ji and Catherine Koveal — demonstrate and explain their unique robotic research platform. The models, RoboSnails I and II, each consist of electronics aboard a rubber "foot" about six inches long by one inch wide. The robots glide over a thin film of "mucus," or silicon oil. The two were created to test mathematical simulations describing forms of snail locomotion. The research could give insights into common biological systems such as blood flow through a vein. Craig Milanesi, AMPS Video Production Manager, shot nature videos of woodland snails and large slugs for this news release produced by the MIT News Office. 199 tag:techtv.mit.edu,:Array/191324740 2008-01-22 16:19:26 -0500 MIT Video Productions <p>Humanoid intelligence requires humanoid interactions with the world, according to Professor Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. By building a robot with a human-like form that can experience the world in the same way that humans do, Brooks and his colleagues believe that eventually someone will be able to build a robot as capable as a human being.</p><p>Meet Cog, a set of sensors and actuators that try to approximate the sensory and motor dynamics of a human body. Since the robot has humanoid form, it is both easy and natural for people to interact with it in a human-like way. And interaction with people is just what Cog needs to learn. Cog is not preprogrammed to perform tasks, but rather learns through interaction. Cog's "brain" is actually many sets of computers spread out around the robot's body and down its back. Each set of computers represents a different part of Cog's "nervous system" and confers perceptual abilities such as vision or basic motor skills such as moving its limbs. </p><p>The idea of this architecture is to allow simple interactions that will lead to simple behaviors that, in turn, will build on each other to make more complicated behaviors easier.</p> 188