Ian Walker Sperber reviews Real Steel, an entertaining, hilarious, yet unimaginative robot film. 

When Jason Yosinski grad “cobbled together” a classroom demonstration of two laptops talking to each other side by side, he never expected it to become the talk of YouTube.

More than 100 mechanical engineers battled their self-made robots Wednesday in Duffield Atrium as part of  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 3780: Mechatronics. 

Cornell scientists have developed a robotic arm composed of coffee grounds that could expand the role of robots in everyday life.

Under the guidance of Prof. Andy Ruina, theoretical and applied mechanics, a group of Cornell students constructed a robot that set the unofficial world record this summer for longest unaided distance traveled.

This Peer Review examines three project teams from the engineering program, each striving to construct an autonomous, independent robot.  By land, by air, and by sea, the robots of this Peer Review display the deligent efforts of dedicated, undergraduate teams.

While the members of the Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle team might not have been huffing and puffing after their most recent competition, they still blew away the competition.

“We won in a pretty spectacular way,” said Erin Fischell ’10, CUAUV team leader. “Our vehicle completed the entire course. No other team has [completed the entire course] since the MIT team in 2002.” 

From July 28 to Aug. 2, CUAUV participated in the 12th annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition, clinching its first win since 2003. Up against 29 other student teams from the United States, Canada, India, Korea and Japan, the CUAUV-designed, unmanned robotic submarine — dubbed “Nova” by the team — sank the competition, and earned $10,000 in doing so.

Prof. Robert Connelly, mathematics, holds up his finger for silence, intently concentrating as he frantically pushes buttons on a toy cell phone. A minute later his face lights up as he solves the puzzle, beating the game. Red lights next to each button light up in unison and Connelly proudly announces, “See this one is great because it has a great, ‘Aha!’ factor.”

Prof. Connelly's Office