Professor Julie Shah spends time with her Interactive Robotics Group at MIT developing algorithms that will allow people and robots to cooperate in the workplace. When first asked whether her research would enable robots to eventually take over human jobs, Dr. Shah says she was stunned:

“If it was easy to make robots take people’s jobs, we would have done it twenty years ago,” Dr. Shah says. “People are using human judgment, which is really hard to program into a robot.”

Her team focuses on increasing worker efficiency by employing robots as work assistants. Dr. Shah’s research was bolstered by an early lab test, which showed that utilizing robots in an assistive capacity (via her algorithms) increased productivity…

About the author

Casey Nobile

Casey Nobile is the lead editor for Robotics Business Review’s RBR50 news, editorial and business segment. She is also contributing writer and editor for the publication’s News & Technology columns with special emphasis on breaking news coverage for science, technology and financial transactions. Casey is also editor and contributor for other in-house publications: Robotics Trends; RoboBusiness and RoboBusiness exhibit services.