Expertise

Topics:  Folding Space Structures, Robotic Vision, 3D Reconstruction, Artifical Intelligence, Robotics/Autonomous Vehicles, Machine Learning, Satellite Swarms, Robotic Systems

Industries: Education/Learning, Construction - Residential

Matthew Johnson-Roberson is the director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He has worked on a NASA project on satellite swarms to to demonstrate how satellites might track and communicate with each other and has conducted research with NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) on folding space structures. His research goal is to develop robotic systems capable of operating in complex dynamic environments. To this end, he seeks to expand and improve the perceptual capabilities of autonomous systems. He has focused on the processing and interpretation of three-dimensional data and his work has sought to push the bounds of scale and resolution in 3D reconstruction, segmentation, machine learning and robotic vision. Johnson-Roberson is the co-founder of Refraction AI, a robotics startup for last mile delivery.

Media Experience

ChatGPT can help write an essay. Scientists want it to start folding laundry  — NPR
Matthew Johnson-Roberson (Robotics Institute) doesn't think AI robots will be doing household tasks for people any time soon. He says, "more fundamental research needs to be done into how neural networks can better process space and time." This story has run on nearly 120 NPR stations nationwide.

Robot Week Teaser  — WTAE-PIT (ABC)
The outlet teased out features they'll be airing next week for Robot Week that included work here at CMU as well as an interview with Matthew Johnson-Roberson (Robotics Institute) speaking on how robots may help us in the future.

Will The Dark Warehouse Ever Become Reality? Perhaps Not In Our Lifetime  — Forbes
All of this sounds attractive as warehouses grapple with worker shortages and rising operating costs, but how realistic is it? According to Matthew Johnson-Roberson, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, "there isn’t one single robot that’s so intelligent and so versatile that it’s like a human worker."

With the construction industry in crisis, a robot may build your home  — The Washington Post
“Construction robots are a great example of how robotic technology is going to touch people’s lives,” said Matthew Johnson-Roberson, the director of the robotics institute at Carnegie Mellon University. “Many [construction] jobs … that exist today are now going to be alongside robots.”

What does Argo AI’s shutdown mean for the future of Pittsburgh tech?  — Technical.ly
Matthew Johnson-Roberson, director of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, noted that the news reflects the realities of startups: Sometimes they fail. Indeed: Often they fail.

Why CMU is turning a former Barnes & Noble into new Robotics Institute space  — Technical.ly
“I think that robots are going to become an increasingly larger and larger part of the day-to-day lives of people everywhere,” Johnson-Roberson said. “So that means you’re going to be working next to a robot, you’re going to be using a robot to do your job better. You’re going to have products made by robots or delivered by robots, or you’re going to purchase a robot to help you in your home.”

When will robots take our jobs?  — Fast Company
“Moving pallets around, moving forklifts around, moving boxes around in fulfillment centers—that’s an area where we’ve seen just massive robotic explosion,” says Matthew Johnson-Roberson, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Amazon operates its own in-house robotics company to push the tech forward. And a growing cadre of startups, such as Berkshire Grey, Covariant, Dexterity, and Plus One Robotics, are offering automation services to the rest of the industry.