This summer, our worst robot nightmare is slashing across the silver screen. Again.

It’s yet another film about thinking androids that go bad, this one inspired by Isaac Asimov's science-fiction anthology I, Robot.

But the real story is somewhere else. It’s in Pittsburgh, where Carnegie Mellon will celebrate 25 years of science fact.

Twenty-five years after opening the doors to the Robotics Institute, our experts continue to advance robots that sense, think and act for the good of humankind. Marvelous gadgets that go where man does not dare: below the earth, on toxic soil and into the heavens.

In the past quarter century, our robots have searched for meteorites in the frozen Antarctic, descended into the depths of volcanoes and learned to drive themselves on the nation’s highways and across deserts. They helped to clean up the meltdown of a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island. They assist surgeons in the operating rooms of some of the nation’s most prestigious hospitals. We’re even developing a robot capable of finding life in the desert.

Robots can identify your face and find you the best deal on the Internet. We’re developing social robots that interact with people and we will soon demonstrate teams composed of robots and humans playing soccer against teams of a similar makeup in the first real collaboration between robots and people.

And we’re struggling to develop a robot that can help keep the elderly out of nursing homes. We have succeeded at much, but we have much yet to do. They’re not cleaning our houses, yet!



Related Links:
Isaac Asimov
Robotics Institute
Robots & Thought