Matthew Mason

Professor Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

New blog post: The Glory of Manipulation.
Manipulation is such a big deal that it takes a broad perspective — the broadest possible perspective — to appreciate it properly. A careful objective look at all phenomena across all space and time reveals that manipulation is the most amazing, to the fourth power. Manipulation is glorious.

https://t.co/I9EbVLXWv6

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

New blog post: The Hairball of Human Knowledge

What does the universe of human knowledge look like? A neat disk with the frontier at the edge? Nope, it's a porous hairball with the frontier sprinkled throughout. It is a mess, but a beautiful mess. https://t.co/sFqB0IiieI

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

New blog post: A dilettante's philosophy of mind

Time for another blog post! A Dilettante's Philosophy of Mind. For fifty years I have tried and failed to ignore philosophers, especially the philosophers telling us that AI is destined for failure. Maybe a brain dump will alleviate the pressure.

https://t.co/UGqL6kUoiB

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Time for another blog post! AI and Robotics: Scientific Revolution #3. We are living through a third scientific revolution, after the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. And almost nobody has noticed!

Under five minutes to read.

https://t.co/Uj44xznx9G

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

I just published the next post: The Next Robotics Revolution, about a secret plan to return the field of robotics to the good old days, by disguising it as a revolution.

It is just a 6-minute read.

https://t.co/ghfd4CT9ia

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

I just added a new post: Don't trust smart people! Some ideas about refining your ideas, starting with a chat with Jeff Schneider, and featuring cameos by Marvin Minsky and Allen Newell. A seven-minute read. Hope you find it fun and/or enlightening!

https://t.co/DmYekCwVIc

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

New blog post! What did I learn in warehouse automation? Clutter is essential, in the warehouse and also at home. A seven-minute read.

https://t.co/ZfdBJ76znU

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Time for blog post number nine -- "Robo Exodus." Here's the question: What happens when we finally succeed in producing robots with true minds, including consciousness, joy, pain, and so forth? Fifty years in the future, Professor Moses faces this challenge in a discussion with Evolution Personified.

It is only an eight-minute read. Hope you like it.

https://t.co/VXMGhdXHRb

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

@WillNorris2 Sure. Fortunately, in logistics, not many. Items are often packaged to make them easy for humans to handle, which means they are just as easy, or even easier, for vacuum grippers. But there is still room for improvement.

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Time for blog post number eight -- "Vacuum grippers versus robot hands." Here's the question: when humanoids can do everything a human can, will they take over the warehouse? No! Vacuum is awesome! Vacuum grippers are the wheels of manipulation!

It is only an five-minute read. Hope you like it.

https://t.co/feOTrKdKcO

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

@YuXiang_IRVL Next time for sure!

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

@adcock_brett Very cool. I have a question, not about the bot or the learning, but about that tool in the workspace for lifting envelopes -- that "ramp-wall". I haven't seen one before. Did you invent it, or did you see it somewhere and borrow it?

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Another blog post, my seventh! This one is called "Robots are Inside Out." Here's the idea. The human body has an infrastructure: an internal set of organs and other stuff that maintain and repair the body from inside. Wild. Why don't robots need such an infrastructure? They do! And they have it, but it is external, not internal. An "exostructure" instead of an infrastructure.

It is only an seven-minute read. Hope you like it.

https://t.co/mm3ZipRuzU

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

I pushed out another blog post! How to close a drawer, how to do just about any manipulation, based on techniques described by Dan Whitney in a talk I attended about 50 years ago.

It is only an eight-minute read. Hope you like it.
https://t.co/I3nz1hvxsX

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Time for another blog post! This one is called "The Unstable Queen". It is about my first experience in robotics, and works around to a perspective on why manipulation is hard: manipulation means interacting intelligently with the real world, but the real world is tricky.

It is only a six-minute read. Hope you find it worthwhile.

-- Matt

https://t.co/GLLJRwVjtV

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Time for another blog post -- "The Inner Robot" -- on how our subconscious processes mislead us on the nature of human manipulation, by managing it brilliantly and quietly. Hope you find it rewarding. It is a seven-minute read.

https://t.co/6wvDEeP54C

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

I added a post to my blog: Robo Genesis
https://t.co/neg2GjgHLo
Here’s the idea. I was trying to think about robot design, from an evolutionary perspective, and it occurred to me I could make up a character, Evolution Personified, EP for short, and have a conversation between EP and a roboticist. And the roboticist could be named Moses, and I could have a burning bush and ten commandments and call it Genesis. Sacreligious? Not offensive I hope. So what would you like to ask EP, if you had the chance?

It is only a six-minute read. Hope you like it.

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

I added a post to my blog:
​The Forebot and the Buttlebot​
https://t.co/7F5VVDQsUx
Here's the question. What happens when you deploy robots in a warehouse, or in a home? What instructions do you give them?

It is only a four-minute read. Hope you like it.

[Matthew Mason @mastertoadster]

Listening to this now -- great perspective from one of the big thinkers.

Inside iRobot: How the Roomba Sparked a Revolution in AI Robotics with Rodney Brooks https://t.co/buWxJhQMyg