"Most industrial robots are blind. Just like a blind man, they do something silly when something's been moved out of place from where they expect it. With visual control the robot would be able to see where the object was and adjust," said William A. Woods, McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science.
"The next step is to have more flexible robots so that you can manufacture things that have smaller product line runs. Flexible manufacturing could save a lot of inventory costs," said Woods.
Better computer vision could also result in major scientific advances.
"Of course you would like to get a vision system that could act in a totally arbitrary environment," Clarke said, adding that such a computer would be able to function on Mars.
The lab also specializes in a new field of research called Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), which involves concentrating large numbers of transistors on small silicon chips. More powerful chips mean computers can occupy less space, allowing advances like the installation of more complex systems in cars, and the replacement of racks of telephone wires with small chips.
"Chips are showing up everywhere--microwaves, refrigerators," said Clark. "The more transistors you put on a chip, the more the computer can do."
Because making the chips is an industrial process, it cannot be performed at Harvard. The National Science Foundation supplies the lab with money to have chips made after they have been designed on the Harvard drawing board.
Harvard is also trying to improve the ability of computers to recognize faces. Although lab workers said they are approaching the work from an academic perspective, computers able to recognize individual human faces could make security systems more foolproof.
Scientists trying to recreate human motion in computers refer to something called the "existence proof," Clarke said. If humans can already move in a certain way, researchers need only figure out the mechanics of the motion.
"You know it can be done, it is a challenge to figure out how it's done." Clarke said. "It's an intellectual challenge to reverse-engineer what God has done. It's actually quite amazing how clever the human body is."
Robotics lab staffers work closely as a team, regardless of their individual stature.
"There are people from full professors down to undergrads in [the laboratory], and everybody has the opportunity to get involved in everybody else's projects if they want. There's always something exciting happening," said Michael E. Cohn '89, who works between 10 and 12 hours a week in the lab.
"Professor Brockett is very good about wanting to get lots of kinds of people involved," said Alexander L. Bangs '88, who also works in the lab. "There are robots out there in industry, welding. The thing we're working on is something beyond that."