Taskin Padir

Taskin Padir in the Press

Northeastern University team working to create robotic avatar in multi-year competition

Remember the movie “Avatar,” where humans could take control of other bodies through technology? That’s basically what the Northeastern team is trying to achieve with their robotic avatar. “Hollywood is always a century ahead of the technology, but you know I think we’re catching up,” said Professor Taskin Padir, who leads the project.

Boston 25

New technology giving first responders another tool to help during disasters

New technology being developed at Northeastern University could give first responders a new tool to beat that clock.

R&D

Making robots more like humans

Technology has come a long way since robots were first introduced into the automotive industry more than 50 years ago. “However, although robots can weld, paint and assemble car parts, they are still far from becoming equivalent to human workers,” said Taskin Padir, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University. “The robots […]

Sky and Telescope

Meet Valkyrie, NASA’s space robot

Meet Valkyrie: She’s 6 feet and 2 inches tall, weighs about 300 pounds, and cost $2 million — and one day this humanoid space robot, or more likely her much more advanced descendant, might help humans colonize Mars. NASA has provided MIT and Northeastern University with Valkyrie prototypes for further development; Northeastern’s Valkyrie is hosted […]

Cisco

Do companies need a Chief Robotics Officer?

Robotics expert Taskin Padir says robotics and automation will have “brand new implications” for large, medium and small companies. These will include training the existing workforce with new skills such as supervising robots and developing strategies for integration of the robot workforce into the human workforce. “It only makes sense if these strategies and operational […]

The Conversation

Making robots that can work with their hands

Though robots are getting more and more involved in factory work and in a wide range of other types of jobs – including in the service industry and health care – their dexterity is not nearly as impressive. Since people first brought them to work in automotive factories more than 50 years ago, we have […]

CIO

With robots on the job, it won’t be IT as usual

Companies will also need someone experienced in A.I., since it will be the smarts in autonomous machines. “Applications of machine learning in robotics is on the rise,” said Taskin Padir, an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, in Boston. “Each practical robot system will rely on some level of A.I. to […]

TechCrunch

In a Massachusetts warehouse, NASA’s Valkyrie robot helps lay the groundwork for Mars settlements

She’s a first step toward a goal of human colonization of Mars and beyond, a wonderful dream for a robot currently tethered to the ceiling of a warehouse in snowy Lowell, Massachusetts, an hour’s drive outside of Boston. The Lowell model is one of four units produced by NASA. The space agency held onto one […]

Assembly Magazine

Humanoid robots ‘live’ it up at Northeastern

Valkyrie is one of the newest “kids” on campus at Boston’s Northeastern University. She stands 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 285 pounds and dreams about exploring Mars someday. However, Valkyrie isn’t a student. She’s an advanced humanoid robot that resides at the school’s Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory (RIVeR). The organization is working […]

National Geographic

Mars: Inside the high-risk, high-stakes race to the red planet

The first footprints on Mars might be those of robots like Valkyrie, being tested by Northeastern University engineers Taskin Padir and Velin Dimitrov. Robots could build a base before humans arrived. Later they’d do chores, such as cleaning dust off solar panels.

NASA is going back to the moon. Northeastern University students are designing robots to explore the terrain.

Some parts of the moon never see the light, but they are full of resources that NASA could mine to settle on the lunar surface and venture beyond. The agency selected a team of Northeastern students to be part of the 2020 Big Idea Challenge, in which they will develop robotic systems to help survey the darkest areas of the moon.

A soft gripper attachment holds a fake fish in Taşkın Padır's lab in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Northeastern University researchers are designing the future of work, starting with collaborative robots for processing seafood

Researchers at Northeastern are designing robots to make the seafood processing industry safer and more comfortable for human workers and more efficient and profitable for companies.

InSight has landed on Mars. Now the real work begins.

The data from InSight will help researchers understand how Mars was formed. These same processes shaped Earth and the other terrestrial planets more than four billion years ago. Northeastern associate professor Taskin Padir walks us through what it means.

Robots are coming to the seafood industry. Here’s why.

Northeastern professor Taskin Padir has been selected to lead a new project to bring collaborative robots into processing plants at America’s busiest fishing port. The goal, he said, is to increase production and efficiency, keep workers safe, and stimulate local job growth.

Sick of household chores? These Northeastern students are building a robot to help you at home.

Three Northeastern students recently participated in RoboCup@Home, a competition that challenges teams from all over the world to program the best “human support robot.” The Northeastern team received the best score of any competitor from the United States.

Drones for research: Explaining Northeastern’s policy

Researchers across disciplines are increasingly turning to unmanned aerial vehicles to advance their work. Here, we outline the steps necessary to operate drones on university campuses and highlight how some faculty are already using drones in their research.

ISEC launches

Northeastern’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex is ‘a work of innovation that will foster innovation.”

Northeastern researchers help establish new institute to advance robotics in manufacturing

Northeastern University researchers led by robotics expert Taskin Padir have been selected to partner with a consortium of universities, nonprofit institutions, local governments, and industry to launch a new independent robotics institute as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Manufacturing USA, a national network for bringing innovation to manufacturing. Called the Advanced Robotics Manufacturing […]

NASA selects Northeastern for humanoid robot research

Northeastern and MIT are the only universities in the country chosen by NASA to perform advanced research and development work on humanoid robots—robots that could play a role in NASA’s plan to send astronauts to Mars.

If reestablished to educate kids, the Presidential Fitness Test could address obesity in American children

Using invasive wetland grasses, Northeastern grads adopt a green approach to stop erosion

How did Netflix’s ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ take over the world and become a global phenomenon?

Parasitic diseases researcher talks ‘flesh-eating’ screwworm infection after first confirmed human case in US