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”.

Jun 5, 2025 · A new system enables a robot to “think ahead” and consider thousands of potential motion plans simultaneously, allowing the robot to solve a multistep problem in a few seconds.

2 days ago · A flexible robot can help emergency responders search through rubble SPROUT, developed by Lincoln Laboratory and University of Notre Dame researchers, is a vine robot …

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 …

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.

Jan 16, 2025 · Technology Humanoid robot learns to waltz by mirroring people's movements An AI trained on motion capture recordings can help robots smoothly imitate human actions, such …

Jan 15, 2025 · New insect-scale microrobots can fly more than 100 times longer than previous versions. The new bots, also significantly faster and more agile, could someday be used to …

May 8, 2025 · MIT engineers developed a ping-pong-playing robot that quickly estimates the speed and trajectory of an incoming ball and precisely hits it to a desired location on the table.

5 days ago · MIT CSAIL researchers use a generative AI model to improve particular parts of 3D robot designs, helping them jump higher and land safely. The system refines its ideas in …

Jun 25, 2025 · Columnist and Technology Forget the Terminators, our robot future may be squishy and fun It is uncanny how human fears about robots mirror those about immigrants.