Research
Signal Kinetics

Extending human and computer abilities in sensing, communication, and actuation through signals and networks
Project Research

Designing social robots for older adults

Most countries are projected to see their 65 and older population surpass the number of people under the age of 15 by 2050. The...
Article Research

Robots track moving objects with unprecedented precision

System uses RFID tags to home in on targets; could benefit robotic manufacturing, collaborative drones, and other applications.
Research
City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
Post Research

EngageME chosen as an EU Research success story

The technology being developed can enable personalized interactions with an autistic child, helping therapists to engage their attention.
Project Research

Urban Swarms

Modern cities have to respond to the growing demands of more efficient and sustainable urban development, as well as an increased quality...
Project Research

TurboTrack: 3D Backscatter Localization for Fine-Grained Robotics

TurboTrack is a 3D localization system for fine-grained robotic tasks, with unique capability to localize backscatter nodes with sub-cent...
Research
Center for Extreme Bionics

Center for Extreme Bionics
Research
Open Agriculture (OpenAg)

Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg)
Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
Research
Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek

Inventing disruptive technologies for nanoelectronic computation and creating new paradigms for life-machine symbiosis
Research
Fluid Interfaces

Designing wearable systems for cognitive enhancement
Archived
Project Research

Robot Expressiveness Affects Children's Learning

Prior research with preschool children has established that book reading, especially when children are encouraged to actively process the...
Archived
Research
Open Ocean

Open Ocean
Research
Tangible Media

Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation
Project Research

Personalized Machine Learning for Autism Therapy

EngageME: Personalized machine learning and humanoid robots for measuring affect and engagement of children with autismEngageME is a proj...
Project Research

FIBERBOTS: Design of a multi-agent, fiber composite digital fabrication system

FIBERBOTS is a digital fabrication platform fusing cooperative robotic manufacturing with abilities to generate highly sophisticated mate...
Research
Mediated Matter

Designing for, with, and by nature
Research
Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
Research
Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability
Archived
Project Research

Amoeba Wall: A context-aware wall system

Amoeba Wall: A context aware wall system: Amoetecture is a set of amoeba-like dynamic spatial elements, including transformable floo...
Archived
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Research
Object-Based Media

Changing storytelling, communication, and everyday life through sensing, understanding, and new interface technologies
Communications Futures Program
Archived
Project Research

Personalized Robot Storytelling Companion

Could a social robot collaboratively exchange stories with children as a peer and help improve their linguistic and storytelling skills? ...
Research
Human Dynamics

Exploring how social networks can influence our lives in business, health, governance, and technology adoption and diffusion
Post Research

Fadel Adib receives the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research

Fadel Adib is one of 25 recipients of the Office of Naval Research's 2019 Young Investigator Awards, and the only awardee from MIT.
Publication Research

Spectrally distinct channelrhodopsins for two-colour optogenetic peripheral nerve stimulation

B. E. Maimon, K. Sparks, S. S. Srinivasan, A. N. Zorzos, H. M. Herr, Spectrally distinct channelrhodopsins for two-colour optogenetic peripheral nerve stimulation. Nature Biomedical Engineering 2, 485–496 (2018).
Article Research

MIT "cyborg botany" researcher builds plant-robot hybrid called Elowan

Sareen is a research affiliate within the Fluid Interfaces group, and worked with lab founder Pattie Maes to develop the project.
Project Research

Elowan: A plant-robot hybrid

Elowan is a cybernetic lifeform, a plant in direct dialogue with a machine. Using its own internal electrical signals, the plant is inter...
Research
Personal Robots

Building socially engaging robots and interactive technologies to help people live healthier lives, connect with others, and learn better
Article Research

This plant is a cyborg (and it might be the future of interfaces)

A Parsons and MIT researcher hooked up electrodes to a plant’s leaves to turn it into a robotic sensor.
Article Research

Cyborg houseplant can drive itself toward the light it craves

Introducing Elowan, a robot-plant hybrid designed by Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes, both from MIT Media Lab.
e-markets
Archived
Research
CE 2.0

CE 2.0
Future Storytelling
Archived
Consumer Electronics Laboratory
Archived
Article Research

These adorable robots work together to build alien structures

Fiberbots have the potential to construct a variety of structures, from art installations to buildings.
Article Research

Social robots will become family members in the homes of the future

Home robots won’t just be helpers and cleaners—they’ll be teachers and trainers, too.
Project Research

Personal Food Computer

The OpenAg™ Personal Food Computer is a tabletop-sized, controlled environment agriculture technology platform that uses robotic systems ...
Publication Research

Personal Food Computer: A New Device for Controlled-Environment Agriculture

Castelló Ferrer E. et al. (2019) Personal Food Computer: A New Device for Controlled-Environment Agriculture. In: Arai K., Bhatia R., Kapoor S. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018. FTC 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 881. Springer, Cham
Project Research

Neural Interfaces

Nerve-Muscle Graft Chamber and micro-channel arrays tor interface to peripheral nerves for prosthesis control. This research effort ...
Project Research

Transdermal Optogenetic Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

Optogenetic techniques have recently been applied to peripheral nerves as a scientific tool with the translatable go...
Publication Research

Personal Food Computer: A new device for controlled-environment agriculture

Castelló Ferrer E. et al. (2019) Personal Food Computer: A New Device for Controlled-Environment Agriculture. In: Arai K., Bhatia R., Kapoor S. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018. FTC 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 881. Springer, Cham
Publication Research

Urban Swarms: A new approach for autonomous waste management

Alfeo, A. L., Ferrer, E. C., Carrillo, Y. L., Grignard, A., Pastor, L. A., Sleeper, D. T., Cimino, M. G. C. A., Lepri, B., Vaglini, G., Laron, K., Dorigo, M., Pentland, A. `Sandy’. (2018). Urban Swarms: A new approach for autonomous waste management. ArXiv:1810.07910 [Cs].
Publication Research

Managing Byzantine Robots via Blockchain Technology in a Swarm Robotics Collective Decision Making Scenario

Volker Strobel, Eduardo Castelló Ferrer, and Marco Dorigo. 2018. Managing Byzantine Robots via Blockchain Technology in a Swarm Robotics Collective Decision Making Scenario. In Proc. of the 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2018), Stockholm, Sweden, July 10–15, 2018, IFAAMAS
Publication Research

The blockchain: a new framework for robotic swarm systems

Castelló Ferrer E. (2019) The Blockchain: A New Framework for Robotic Swarm Systems. In: Arai K., Bhatia R., Kapoor S. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018. FTC 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 881. Springer, Cham
Project Research

SkinBot: A Wearable, Skin-Climbing Robot

We introduce SkinBot: a lightweight robot that moves over the skin's surface with a two-legged suction-based locomotion mechanism and cap...
Project Research

Circuit Robots: Mass Manufacturing of Self-Actuating Robots

Integrating sensors and actuators using flexible electronicsCurrently, the manufacturing of self-actuating and self-sensing robots requir...
Project Research

Ritual I: The Thing Itself

Ritual I: The Thing Itself consists of a choreographed robotic body that is in constant flux. It performs a dance of repetitive patt...
Project Research

Relational AI

Creating long-term interpersonal interaction and shared experiences with social robots Many of our current projects explore the use ...
Project Research

Emotionally Aware Robot Teammates

Emotionally supportive robots improve overall team functioning!
Project Research

Designing Robots in Mixed Reality

This is a joint proposal from graduate students Vik Parthiban (Media Lab) and Andrew Spielberg (MIT CSAIL, Distributed Robotics Laborator...
ML_logo_160W
Inventing the future of digitally augmented objects and environments.
Archived
Publication Research

Epidermal Robots: Wearable Sensors that Climb on The Skin

Dementyev A., Hernandez J., Choi I., Follmer S., Paradiso J., "Epidermal Robots: Wearable Sensors That Climb On The Skin" In Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 2 (3), September 2018.
Project Research

LuminAR

LuminAR reinvents the traditional incandescent bulb and desk lamp, evolving them into a new category of robotic, digital information devi...
Archived
Publication Research

SkinBot: A Wearable Skin Climbing Robot

A. Dementyev, J. Hernandez, S. Follmer, I. Choi, and J. Paradiso. "SkinBot: A Wearable Skin Climbing Robot." ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium, October 2017.
Project Research

Wireless Communication from Underwater to the Air

Did you know that submarines today still cannot wirelessly communicate with airplanes? For decades, communicating between underwater and ...
Project Research

Agonist-antagonist Myoneural Interface (AMI)

Humans can accurately sense the position, speed, and torque of their limbs, even with their eyes shut. This sense, known as proprioceptio...
Publication Research

Human walking model predicts joint mechanics electromyography and mechanical economy

K. Endo and H. Herr. Human walking model predicts joint mechanics, electromyography and mechanical economy, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), St. Louis, MO, Oct. 2009.
Publication Research

An artificial gastrocnemius for a transtibial prosthesis

K. Endo, E. Swart, H. M. Herr, An artificial gastrocnemius for a transtibial prosthesis, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC, 2009 Annual International Conference of the IEEE, pp.5034-5037, Sep. 2009.
Publication Research

Counterpoint: Artificial legs do not make artificially fast running speeds possible

R. Kram, A. M. Grabowski, C. P. McGowan, M. B. Brown, and H. M. Herr. Counterpoint: Artificial legs do not make artificially fast running speeds possible, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 1012–1014, Apr. 2010.
Publication Research

Control of a powered ankle-foot prosthesis based on a neuromuscular model

M. F. Eilenberg, H. Geyer, and H. M. Herr. Control of a powered ankle-foot prosthesis based on a neuromuscular model, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 164-173, 2010.
Publication Research

Optimal workloop energetics of muscle-actuated systems an impedance matching view

W. Farahat and H. M. Herr. Optimal workloop energetics of muscle-actuated systems an impedance matching view, PLoS Computational Biology, vol. 6, no. 6, 2010.
Publication Research

A muscle-reflex model that encodes principles of legged mechanics produces human walking dynamics and muscle activities

H. Geyer and H. Herr. A muscle-reflex model that encodes principles of legged mechanics produces human walking dynamics and muscle activities, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems & Rehabilitation Engineering, 2010.
Publication Research

Antagonistic Active Knee Prosthesis. A Metabolic Cost of Walking Comparison with a Variable-Damping Prosthetic Knee

E. C. Martinez-Villalpando, L. M. Mooney, G. A. Elliott and H. M. Herr. Antagonistic Active Knee Prosthesis. A Metabolic Cost of Walking Comparison with a Variable-Damping Prosthetic Knee, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC, 2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE, 2011.
Publication Research

The biomechanics and energetics of human running using an elastic knee exoskeleton

G. Elliott, G.S. Sawicki, A. Marecki, H. Herr. The biomechanics and energetics of human running using an elastic knee exoskeleton, International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2013.
Publication Research

Effects of a powered ankle-foot prosthesis on kinetic loading of the contralateral limb: a case series

D. Hill and H. M. Herr. Effects of a powered ankle-foot prosthesis on kinetic loading of the contralateral limb: a case series, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2013.
Publication Research

Proportional EMG Control of Ankle Plantar Flexion in a Powered Transtibial Prosthesis

J. Wang, O. A. Kannape, and H. M. Herr Proportional EMG Control of Ankle Plantar Flexion in a Powered Transtibial Prosthesis, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2013
Publication Research

Continuously-Variable Series-Elastic Actuator

L. M. Mooney and H. M. Herr Continuously-Variable Series-Elastic Actuator, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2013
Publication Research

A model of muscle-tendon function in human walking

K. Endo and H. Herr. A model of muscle-tendon function in human walking, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Kobe, Japan, May 2009.