Brooks left MIT. Heartland may be ready to take off.

Rodney Brooks is one of the founders of iRobot, and an influential figure in the world of robotics. For the past 26 years he’s been a professor at MIT, but that changes starting July 1st. According to Xconomy, Brooks is formally retiring from MIT, at age 55, the earliest possible time at which he can become a professor emeritus. Seemingly in good health and good standing at the University, it is very likely that Brooks is leaving MIT to focus on his new venture: Heartland Robotics. The robotics startup aims to bring human-like robots to the workplace. With Brooks’ full attention now resting on it, Heartland Robotics is a company to watch.

Brooks, Colin Angle, and Helen Greiner started iRobot back in 1990. They since have built it into a robotics empire, selling more than 2.5 million of their Roomba vacuum cleaners and working on dozens of different projects in fields as diverse as sea-exploration and army intelligence. But Brooks is more than just a founder of a major robotics firm, he’s also a top innovator of the field. His behavioral approach to programming robots defined the archetype of household and office bots for years. His future ideas could be likewise definitive.

Back in 2008, Brooks left his position as Chief Technology Officer at iRobot, presumably to give him more time to focus on his work at Heartland. Now that his duties at MIT are also ending, it’s likely to facilitate an even bigger change in the robotics firm. The only question I have: is Brooks leaving MIT because Heartland is ready to ramp up, or is he leaving because Heartland desperately needs his attention to keep from failing? Either way, we can probably expect news to come out of the Massachusetts-based company rather soon.

In 2009 Brooks gave a talk at Maker Faire about how robots can be, and need to be, adapted to enter into human workplaces. While not directly about Heartland Robotics, the talk gives some great insight into Brooks’ outlook. Check it out in the video from Fora.Tv below.

When we reviewed Heartland Robotics back in September of last year, the main focus of their work was the Obrero robot. Developed in large part by grad student Eduardo Torres-Jara, the Obrero is a new model for gentler robotic limbs. It can pick up delicate objects easily and is still nimble enough to work in practical applications. This gives the robot the potential to work in human-environments, interacting with us without the fear of a crushed hand or damaged equipment.

Curiously, I can no longer find public videos of the Obrero robot in action. The associated channel on YouTube seems to have been removed or restricted and the video we linked to in our previous story is now private. While this certainly could be just a house-keeping type error, it may mean that Heartland is moving towards market and doesn’t want information available too soon.

Heartland seems to still be operating in stealth mode, and as such it’s hard to predict what (if anything) the company may produce in the next few years. Yet Brooks’ record for inventive engineering stands on its own. When he and his partners started iRobot it was with the hopes of bringing robots into the mainstream. I think they succeeded rather well. Now, Brooks and Heartland want to expand robot use into every level of manufacturing and human work. Could he succeed again? Not sure I would bet against him.

If you have any tips or information about what Heartland is up to, please do let us know!

[image credit: MIT]
[video credit: ForaTv]
[source: Xconomy]

Rodney Brooks (right) helped Eduardo Torres-Jara (left) develop the Obrero bot. We could see a robot like this emerge as the flagship product for Brooks' new company: Heartland Robotics.

What do you do after you’ve climbed a mountain? Climb another one. Rodney Brooks, MIT professor, robotic guru, and co-founder of iRobot is developing another robotics company, Heartland Robotics. Along with Helen Greiner and Colin Angle, Brooks helped iRobot become a household name with the development of the widely popular vacuum bot, Roomba. Now Brooks is looking to improve the capabilities of the average worker with a new robot and a new robot company. Obrero, is a humanoid-like bot with a hand developed for sensitive manipulation, see the video below, and seems likely to be developed into Heartland’s chief product. The questions on everyone’s mind: can Brooks strike gold again, and will Obrero become the next Roomba?

In some cases, robotics have already entered and dominated the commercial workforce. As we’ve said before, KIVA, FlexPicker, and desktop dispensing bots are at the top of their specialized fields. On the retail side, Roomba is still a popular product after 7 years. Brooks may be able to blend the two fields by combining industrial level capabilities with retail-level prices.

As you can see in the video, Obrero is a robot with a sensitive hand. It’s delicate enough to hold onto those cookies and not break a one. That’s important to us cookie lovers, but also to anyone who hopes to work along side a machine without losing a limb. It’s unclear if Brooks aims to adapt the robot to a particular level of manufacturing or even if Obrero, in its current incarnation, will serve as the key product of Heartland Robotics. The technologies involved, sensitive manipulation and object recognition, could be adapted into different robots in the future with a wide range of possible uses.

Though Brooks’ career spans decades of outstanding robotic accomplishments, he never makes his achievements alone. Eduardo Torres-Jones, one of MIT’s CSAIL graduate students, developed Obrero (which in Spanish means ‘worker’) under Brooks’ guidance. Heartland Robotics already has its top brass organized, but they are still looking for many senior positions. Those interested should check out the career listings on the company website.

It’s still too early to tell how Heartland will fare, but when one of the people from iRobot starts talking new companies, I start to listen. More than 2 million Roombas have been sold worldwide. If Brooks can capture just some of that popularity with his next venture, we’re going to be seeing his robots become part of the industrial landscape.

And if he can’t get Heartland off the ground? We’re still going to see a lot more robots in jobs that used to belong to humans. Robotic workforces have some amazing advantages that are too profitable to ignore. But blue-collar types shouldn’t lose hope, there’s a new paradigm that I think Brooks and others are working towards: the human-machine worker. Why settle for a robot or a human when a human working with a robot gives you maximized results? Getting biology and machinery to work together with all the perks and none of the disadvantages is a mountain of a task. And I have no doubt someone is going to climb it.

[photo credit: Patsy Stampson]

MIT is teaching Little Dog new tricks in navigation.

Sometimes robot videos just make me laugh. CSAIL at MIT has been working with Boston Dynamics’ robot Little Dog, helping it navigate rough terrain in novel ways. The scrappy quadruped can dynamically shifts its weight on two legs at a time, helping it climb slopes and stairs, and generally get around.And as soon as Little Dog gets where it’s going, it promptly flops down on its belly much like a real canine. The careful steps followed by exhausted collapse gets me every time. Check out the video from BotJunkie below, and look towards the end (1:44) to see for yourself.

Little Dog’s journey is part of Phase 2 of DARPA’s Learning Locomotion Program. As those who read our War 2.0 story know, a larger version of the robot, aptly named Big Dog, is being bred to work as a mule for soldiers in the field. That bot can haul loads and keep walking even after a hefty kick (see its video below). The navigating and stepping routines that CSAIL teaches Little Dog are going to be directly portable over to Big Dog.

Having a robot make its way on a rough path isn’t new. We’ve seen how Asimo navigated terrain using an overheard camera and symbolic shapes. CSAIL’s robotic gardeners also operated under self-guidance. Little Dog is doing much the same: an overhead camera helps the bot choose it’s next steps carefully while it makes decisions and maintains its balance dynamically.

The leaps and jumps it makes may not seem impressive, but there’s definitely potential there. Accurately moving in the air and planning where to land are some of the more difficult tasks walkers have to make on a routine basis. If you want to be furthered impressed by Little Dog’s stepping prowess, check out this video from last year. It looks like CSAIL decided to give the robots some Shaolin training. Very cool.

Pattern recognition, problem solving, and decision making are all necessary when walking, and they are all tasks humans excel at. In fact, these are perhaps the only skills where humans still defeat computers every time. The fact that CSAIL is helping Boston Dynamics and DARPA develop a robot that learns as it walks is important stuff. Robotic learning is still in its infancy, and as with human infants, walking is just the first of many goals. With a strong foundation in problem solving, all learning machines need to exceed human intelligence is time. That is if they don’t get tired and flop out first.

Relax human, I will move that myself!

The autonomous forklift, currently being developed by students and faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Singularity Hub regulars known for the robot gardener and sixth sense) in conjunction with Draper and Lincoln Laboratories, promises to bring a new wave of futuristic technology to today’s warehouses.  This is not your average Roomba with tines stuck on the front; it is designed from the ground up in order to work with humans in a human world.  The forklift is able to sense its surroundings and make decisions accordingly, combining agility with intelligence and allowing it to act in a constantly changing environment.

Most robots up until now are programmed to do a certain repetitive task and, with no human interaction to make a mess of things, are then left to do the work.  This forklift, however, is being designed to move pallets for the military in a variable environment where humans work and interact with the machine as coworkers.  Its programming makes it responsive to voice commands given by workers within the warehouse, allowing easy integration into any building with any staff.  And if the job is just too tough for the current firmware to figure out, there is always the option to revert to good old manual labor, wherein a person can jump in the driver’s seat and take the controls.

Funding for the forklift is coming from the military, with hopes that it will eventually see the light of day in military storehouses before making its way out into the civilian world.  The project, however, is still in its developmental phase and is not likely to hit the military base for quite some time.  It is currently able to sense and engage pallets but the aforementioned intuition and decision-making has not yet shown through.  Take a look at the video below for an active demonstration:

This forklift not only represents a further synergy between man and machine, but it also is an interesting step forward in the field of robotic coding.  The code for this heavy lifter was initially written for use in a DARPA Grand Challenge Vehicle and only slightly modified for this application.  Code recycling in this manner is a growing trend within the robotics community and may stand as a stepping stone for a future standardized autonomous vehicle code, allowing for even more rapid creation of advanced robots aimed at doing any multitude of jobs.

Such a standard could open up the doors to converting everything and anything into an autonomous robot, eventually making many manual labor tasks obsolete.  Fans of Marshall Brain or those worried about robots causing widespread unemployment, fear not.  These autonomous workers are not out to steal all of our jobs (not yet, at least).  Despite being able to operate safely and without fatigue, they still require people to watch over them and tell them what to do.

As the dissemination of the autonomous robot into factories and warehouses proceeds, manual labor jobs will inevitably be lost.  However, there is no clear indication that, in the near future, robots will be able to carry out jobs that rely less on brawn and more on brains, meaning that manual laborers would need to be retrained in other fields.  This will augment the continuing trend of a service based economy, where jobs in production are dwindling while jobs rooted in human intelligence continue to grow.  For the moment then, it looks as if these brain-intensive jobs are safe from a robotic takeover.  Yet if research in artificial intelligence suddenly takes off, perhaps we all may be scouring the classified section.