© 2025 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Smarter Robots In The Works

Published March 4, 2015 at 1:40 PM EST
CoBot, short for Collaborative Robot, is designed to be an office helper. The bots, made by a team at Carnegie Mellon University led by professor Manuela Veloso, can navigate around a building on their own. They are also smart enough to know when to ask humans for help, such as to press buttons and open doors. (cs.cmu.edu)
CoBot, short for Collaborative Robot, is designed to be an office helper. The bots, made by a team at Carnegie Mellon University led by professor Manuela Veloso, can navigate around a building on their own. They are also smart enough to know when to ask humans for help, such as to press buttons and open doors. (cs.cmu.edu)

Having robot office helpers could be pretty handy. But today’s machines are nowhere close to the smart, free-roaming robots you see in movies. Right now, robots couldn’t get around a building without tripping on chairs or getting stuck behind doors.

From Here & Now’s tech partner IEEE Spectrum, Prachi Patel reports on a new bot that will work better in human environments.

[Youtube]

Reporter

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

Donate

SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

Donate