OUR RESEARCH

SCS Professor Matt Mason Publishes Book on Robotic Manipulation

Matthew T. "Matt" Mason, professor of computer science and robotics, has written a book, "Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation," which was released by MIT Press in August.

The book focuses on the processes involved in moving objects around, such as grasping, carrying, pushing, and dropping. Mason said that although there are other books on the subject, his focuses on manipulation rather than on manipulators.

"My book allows for a more fundamental approach that is more encompassing than a study of robotic arms," he said. "My main research area needed a fundamental underpinning. A lot of robotic programming is ad hoc trial and error engineering."

Mason has been working in the field of robotic manipulation since 1976 and first outlined his book in 1982. Masters and doctoral students in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science have been using drafts of it for several years at universities, including Berkeley and Northwestern.

Mason earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a member of the Carnegie Mellon faculty since 1982. He presently chairs the Robotics doctoral program.

Mason's research interests include robotic manipulation, automated manufacturing systems and mobile manipulation. "Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation" is Mason's third book. He is co-author of "Robot Hands and the Mechanics of Manipulation" and co-editor of "Robot Motion: Planning and Control."

Mason is a winner of the System Development Foundation Prize, a Fellow of the AAAI and a Fellow of the IEEE.