the aspect of this science that most of
us who are interested in experimental
robotics are leaning towards.
Service robotics basically covers
virtually all other types of robots,
usually mobile or teleoperated robots.
These include personal robots in the
home, unmanned aerial vehicles,
undersea ROVs (remotely operated
vehicles), teleoperated surgical robots,
battlefield robots, ‘hot cell’ robots,
AGVs (automated guided vehicles),
and the many other types such as
experimenter’s machines.
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Minsky is one of the first
leaders in robotics who inspired my
robotics work. As a Professor of
Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science at MIT, he also is a pioneer in
robotics and telepresence. With a deep
interest in AI, he built the first randomly
wired neural network learning machine
called SNARC (Stochastic Neural-Analog
Reinforcement Computer).
His interest in Turing’s early work
has led to theoretical and practical
advances in artificial intelligence and
cognitive psychology. A paper he wrote
in 1963 entitled Matter, Mind, and
Models was about the problem of
making self-aware machines.
He published a book entitled The
Society of Mind in 1988 in which 270
short ideas reflect the many parts that
make up the structure of the human
mind and how it works. His ideas have
been used by many AI researchers in
developing robot thought processes.
On the mechanical side of things,
he designed and built some of the first
visual scanners and mechanical hands
Active Robots ............................................. 3
All Electronics Corp. ......................... 34, 50
AP Circuits/ e-pcb.com ............................ 13
AWIT .......................................................... 50
CCS ............................................................ 50
CrustCrawler ............................................. 19
Electronics123 .......................................... 34
EZ PCB ....................................................... 61
Futurlec ..................................................... 50
Hitec .......................................................... 21
82 SERVO 09.2007
with tactile sensors. In 1956, he invented the optical Confocal Scanning
Microscope that allowed very high
resolution and image quality. His ideas
have benefited many of NASA’s space
exploration projects. Minsky is one of
the leading pioneers and researchers in
robot intelligence.
Rodney Brooks
One cannot get very far in the
study of robotics without reading
about Rodney Allen Brooks. Born in
1954 in Adelaide, Australia, Brooks had
already made a name for himself in the
field of robotics when I first met him at
MIT in the mid ‘80s.
He received degrees in pure
mathematics from the Flinders
University of South Australia and a
Ph.D. in Computer Science from
Stanford University in 1981. His title at
MIT is Panasonic Professor of Robotics,
yet his influence on the science spreads
far beyond the halls of this institution.
Having also been the director of MIT’s
Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory, he is also on
the board of iRobot Corporation — a
company he helped form along with
some of his brightest students.
Brooks has focused his work on
biologically inspired robotic architectures. He is concerned with both the
engineering of intelligent robots to
operate in unstructured environments
and with understanding human intelligence building ‘humanoid’ robot models. He has published papers and books
on autonomous robots, planetary
exploration rovers, micro-robots, robot
assembly, humanoid robots, artificial
life, computer vision and path planning,
Advertiser Index
Hobby Engineering .................................... 9
Images Co. ................................................ 50
IMService ............................................ 34, 50
Jameco Robot Store ............................ 2, 50
Lorax Works ........................................ 34, 50
Lynxmotion, Inc. ....................................... 25
Maxbotix ................................................... 50
Maximum Robotics ............................ 23, 50
Net Media ................................................. 83
and numerous other titles and subjects.
In 1997, he even starred as himself
in an Errol Morris film entitled Fast,
Cheap, and Out of Control, based on
the title of one of his papers. If there
ever was a robotics pioneer and
researcher who had his ‘fingers’ in all
aspects of robotics and truly made a
difference in the field, it is Rod Brooks.
There are so many people who have
made their names a household word in
the robotics community. Carnegie
Mellon University has produced a host
of world-class robotics researchers. Marc
Raibert of CMU’s Leg Laboratory and his
famous one-legged robot is one. Red
Whittaker and his famous autonomous
Hummers that competed in DARPA’s
Grand Challenges is another. Hans
Moravec of CMU’s Robotics Institute
immigrated from Austria and has done
some great research in machine vision.
Raj Reddy from India was the founder of
CMU’s Robotics Institute.
CMU and MIT are not the only
educational institutes that produce
world-class robotics researchers as
Stanford University and other schools
around the world have made their
mark, but these two seem to be on the
top of the list in this country.
It is my hope that one or more
readers of SERVO Magazine will join
the list of these elite researchers and
industry leaders. There are many more
steps, leaps, and bounds to be made in
robotics before we see robots in every
home and industry. It will be you, the
readers who will make that happen.
I only covered a tiny fraction of the
noteworthy people in this field — there
are so many more out there. Maybe in
a 2020 article, on the ‘People of
Robotics,” your name will be there. SV
Parallax, Inc. ...............................Back Cover
PCB Pool .............................................. 18, 50
Pololu Robotics & Electronics .......... 45, 50
Robo Development 2007 ....................... 66
Robotis Co. Ltd. ....................................... 37
RobotShop, Inc. ................................. 44, 50
Schmartboard ..................................... 34, 71
Solarbotics/HVW ....................................... 7
Technological Arts ................................... 50
Vantec ....................................................... 13
