| Robotics Institute | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1979 |
| Type | Private |
| Location | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | http://www.ri.cmu.edu/ |
The Robotics Institute (RI) is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world.
The RI was established in 1979, and for many years CMU was the only university in the world offering a Ph.D. in Robotics. In 2008, the total number of people in the RI (faculty, staff, students, postdocs) was 404,[1] making the RI one of the largest (probably the largest) robotics research organizations in the world. Total sponsored project expenditures in FY06 were $53M.[1]
The National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) was established in 1996 as the commercialization arm of RI, and has been very successful at applying robotics technology to commercial and defense applications. The RI and NREC are also leaders in developing materials and curricula for robotics education in the secondary grades.
The Field Robotics Center (FRC) has developed a number of significant robots, including Sandstorm and H1ghlander, which finished second and third in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and the Boss, which won the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge.
The RI operates labs and facilities on Carnegie Mellon's main campus as well as in the Lawrenceville and Hazelwood neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.
The book Almost Human: Making Robots Think by Lee Gutkind[2] is devoted to describing the development of robots at the Robotics Institute, particularly focusing on the developers and describing field trips.
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