MiT - Active Matter Summit 2015

if you missed, like me, part of the MiT "Active Matter Summit" 2015 here you can find all the videos of the six sessions:

SESSION 1: MATERIAL MAKING
Neil Gershenfeld, MIT - Digital Fabrication & Digital Materials
Peko Hosoi, MIT - Active Soft Materials
Jennifer Lewis, Harvard University - Printing Functional and Active Matter
Rob Wood, Harvard University - Microrobotics
Markus Buehler, MIT - Materials by Design
Neri Oxman, MIT - Material Ecology
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dq4fNBzmtU

SESSION 2: BIO-MATERIALS
Peng Yin, Harvard University - Programming DNA
Fiorenzo Omenetto, Tufts University - Silk Polymorphism
Tal Danino, MIT - Programming Bacteria
David Benjamin, The Living - The Living
Suzanne Lee, BioCouture - BioCouture
Paola Antonelli, MoMA - Design & Biology
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNaGm_1xtQ4

SESSION 3: MATERIAL TRANSFORMATIONS
Paul McEuen, Cornell University - Graphene Transformations
Pedro Reis, MIT - Programmable Soft Surfaces
Ying Liu / Michael Dickey, NC State University - Soft Material Transformations
Junus Khan, Carbitex - Tunable Carbon Fiber
Christophe Cros, Airbus - Airbus & Programmable Carbon
Christophe Guberan, Product Designer - Active Products
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHyYNAZbrk4

SESSION 4: ACTIVE ASSEMBLIES
Skylar Tibbits, MIT - Macro-Scale Self-Assembly
Arthur Olson, The Scripps Research Institute - Biomolecular Self-Assembly
John Main, DARPA - Scalable Directed Assembly
Heinrich Jaeger, University of Chicago - Granular Jammable Materials
Alfredo Alexander-Katz, MIT - Self-Assembly & Soft Materials
Lodovica Illari, MIT - Weather in a Rotating Tank
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btBOwK9OgyA

SESSION 5: MATERIAL ROBOTICS
John Romanishin / Daniela Rus, MIT - Printable Robotics
Rob MacCurdy / Hod Lipson, Cornell University - Cellular Robotics
Erik Demaine, MIT - Computational Origami
Simon Kim & Mariana Ibanez, University of Pennsylvania & Harvard University - The Immersive
Paul Kassabian, SGH & MIT - Robotic Assembly
Marcelo Coelho, Marcelo Coelho Studio - Computational Matter
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgEQH9wrrZI

SESSION 6: ACTIVE ARCHITECTURES
Achim Menges, University of Stuttgart - Material Computation
Chris Lasch, Aranda/Lasch - Architecture, Materials & Structure
Jenny Sabin, Cornell University - Architecture & Biology
Jessica Rosenkrantz &  - Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, Nervous System - Nervous System
Sheila Kennedy, MIT - Matter of Time
Tomás Saraceno, Artist - Material Environments
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFE1D-E_pJ4

RMIT Architectural Robotics Lab

The RMIT Architectural Robotics Lab is an applied research group that explores the application and implications of robotics to architectural design, building fabrication, assembly and construction. The lab operates to develop both speculative research and the application of that research to industry projects. The lab is situated within RMIT University's d___Lab and operates from the Design Hub.

Link to the RMIT Architectural Robotics Lab

MADLAB.CC - RESEARCH & DESIGN

MADLAB.CC is a design collective exploring computational approaches to architecture, craft, and interaction. Our work merges disciplinary knowledge from architecture, robotics, computer science, human-computer interaction, and design to explore the edges of digital creativity. 

Robo.Op is an open hardware / open software platform for hacking industrial robots (IRs). Robo.Op makes it cheaper and easier to customize your IR for creative use, so you can explore the fringes of industrial robotics. The toolkit is made up of a modular physical prototyping platform, a simplified software interface, and a centralized hub for sharing knowledge, tools, and code. 

Link to MADLAB.CC
Link to Robo.Op

Flying Machine Arena

The Flying Machine Arena (FMA) is a portable space devoted to autonomous flight. Measuring up to 10 x 10 x 10 meters, it consists of a high-precision motion capture system, a wireless communication network, and custom software executing sophisticated algorithms for estimation and control.

The motion capture system can locate multiple objects in the space at rates exceeding 200 frames per second. While this may seem extremely fast, the objects in the space can move at speeds in excess of 10 m/s, resulting in displacements of over 5 cm between successive snapshots. This information is fused with other data and models of the system dynamics to predict the state of the objects into the future.

The system uses this knowledge to determine what commands the vehicles should execute next to achieve their desired behavior, such as performing high-speed flips, balancing objects, building structures, or engaging in a game of paddle-ball. Then, via wireless links, the system sends the commands to the vehicles, which execute them with the aid of on-board computers and sensors such as rate gyros and accelerometers.

Although various objects can fly in the FMA, the machine of choice is the quadrocopter due to its agility, its mechanical simplicity and robustness, and its ability to hover. Furthermore, the quadrocopter is a great platform for research in adaptation and learning: it has well understood, low order first-principle models near hover, but is difficult to characterize when performing high-speed maneuvers due to complex aerodynamic effects. We cope with the difficult to model effects with algorithms that use first-principle models to roughly determine what a vehicle should do to perform a given task, and then learn and adapt based on flight data.

Link to the FMA

MaP+S - Material Processes and Systems Group at Harvard GSD

The Materials, Processes, and Systems (MaPS) Group, lead by Professor Martin Bechthold, is a research unit that promotes the understanding, development and deployment of innovative technologies for buildings. The group evolved from the previously established Design Robotics Group, and is located in a research cluster at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. MaPS looks at materiality as starting points for design research, with a special interest in robotic and computer-numerically controlled (CNC) fabrication processes as well as small scale work on nano-materials. Much of our current work studies ceramic material systems and design robotics. MaPS also runs the Adaptive Living Environments (ALivE) project jointly with Harvards REAL group. ALivE develops novel applications for nano-scale material systems developed jointly with scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

Link to MaP+S