Who’s Who: Rodney Brooks

Rodney Brooks is credited as being a major contributor and proponent of the Subsumption architecture that deals with the way in which robots handle tasks.  Essentially, the architecture builds “layers” of small, simple tasks to perform autonomous behavior.  This has allowed robotics to achieve fast speeds in performing tasks, but has been criticized for its lack of accuracy.  Much of his research in robotics has been at MIT, where he has worked since the 1980′s.  Recently, Rodney Brooks made headlines in the robotics industry by leaving iRobot, one of the world’s largest robotics corporations, as Chief Technical Officer to start his own venture dubbed Heartland Robotics.  He is one of the most prominent roboticists around, and it will be interesting to see just what sort of projects and creations will be coming out of this newfound company.