When industrial robots were first introduced in the early 1960s 鈥� initially on automobile assembly lines 鈥� computers were still in their infancy, so the robots were designed to perform only the most rigidly predetermined set of repetitive movements. Despite a half-century of exponential growth in computational power, that鈥檚 pretty much still the state of industrial robotics. But according to Rodney Brooks, who last year left a tenured position as MIT鈥檚 Panasonic Professor of Robotics to focus on his latest company, that may not be true for much longer.

Brooks鈥檚 鈥渓ips are sealed,鈥� as The Economist put it last week, about what exactly he and are up to in a converted warehouse in South Boston鈥檚 Innovation District. But venture capitalists have already gambled $32 million on the premise that whatever it is they produce, it鈥檚 going to set a whole new direction in the field.

Brooks, now the chairman and chief technology officer of Heartland Robotics, spoke at MIT on April 20, addressing a recently formed student entrepreneurship group called do.it@MIT.

In robotics, 鈥渢oday鈥檚 technology is going to look so incredibly primitive in a couple of decades,鈥� Brooks told a crowd of about 400, mostly students, gathered at MIT鈥檚 Kresge Auditorium. And, he added, 鈥測ou鈥檙e the ones who are going to invent鈥� the new robotic technologies that will transform the field.

Robots down under

The former director of MIT鈥檚 Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) described growing up in in Adelaide, Australia. While he had never heard of MIT, he was an inveterate tinkerer who became intrigued early on by robotics.

In the early 1960s, Brooks recalled, he built a very primitive computer, using vacuum tubes, that had a total random access memory capacity of 64 bits (or 8 bytes) and took a year and a half to build. He then went on to build a very simple robot that remained in his mother鈥檚 garden shed for the next 30 years, he said.

After seeing the 1968 movie 鈥�2001: A Space Odyssey,鈥� he became intrigued by HAL, the movie鈥檚 intelligent, responsive computer. 鈥淗e was a murdering psychopath,鈥� Brooks quipped 鈥� but nonetheless an impressive portrayal of machine intelligence.

Brooks鈥� first exposure to the Institute came when he read that an MIT professor named Marvin Minsky had been a consultant to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick; he immediately decided he wanted to attend MIT.

That dream took a while to realize: Brooks was turned down for graduate school at MIT, and turned down again 鈥� twice 鈥� for faculty positions after earning his doctorate at Stanford University. 鈥淩ejection is not the end,鈥� he advised the students, saying that it鈥檚 important to persevere in pursuit of one鈥檚 dreams: 鈥淧ersistence pays off.鈥�

In 1994, on his third try, Brooks finally did get an MIT faculty appointment, and quickly set about upending the world of robotics research.

Out of control

Brooks鈥� first major contribution to the field came from an insight based on nature: the idea of building swarms of tiny, inexpensive robots with autonomous control systems. Initially intended as an alternative to NASA proposals for huge planetary rovers, the concept was described in a research paper called 鈥淔ast, Cheap and Out of Control.鈥� Soon thereafter, Brooks became a central character in a documentary film of the same name by Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris.

The concept of smaller, simpler robots did ultimately have an impact on NASA, and led to Brooks鈥� work on the first mobile robotic device ever to land on another planet: a Mars rover called Sojourner.

Working with MIT students and postdocs, Brooks developed a variety of robots that could watch people鈥檚 facial expressions and gestures and make inferences about their meaning and emotional state 鈥� for example, sensing when people were frustrated or bored. The goal, then as now, was to create robots that could more easily interact with human beings.

Over the years, Brooks set up several companies; his first big success was one that became known as iRobot, which introduced the vacuum-cleaning robot called Roomba. The company also produces military robots that are widely used by U.S. forces to disarm explosives and explore dangerous areas.

Brooks鈥� latest concept for next-generation robots could, he thinks, revolutionize manufacturing. Instead of huge machines that need to be kept inside protective cages so they won鈥檛 injure nearby workers, he envisions smaller, nimbler, more responsive robots that could work alongside people, helping them with tasks. The new robots, he says, will compare to today鈥檚 lumbering industrial robots in much the way that an iPhone compares to an earlier, room-sized mainframe computer.

Brooks isn鈥檛 revealing anything yet about what his new robots will look like, or what they鈥檒l be capable of doing. But based on his comments at MIT, don鈥檛 expect them to look much like people. 鈥淚f you make them too humanlike, people鈥檚 expectations go up, and they鈥檙e easily disappointed,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to make it look like Einstein!鈥�

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.