Principal Investigator Kent Larson
Project Website http://www.media.mit.edu/projects/torque/overview/
How can new technologies respond to diverse industrial, socio-economic and educational needs of the society?
Despite AI and robotics being widely trumpeted as keys to the new Industrial Revolution, the access to their development remains largely restricted to companies and institutions that are rich in capital and/or data, potentially further deepening the socio-economic disparity observed across continents. As a likely result, these new technologies generate limited positive externalities. For instance, is the automobile really the most critical area in need of self-driving technology? Where else might AI and robotics be applied that can lead to increased urban livability, socioeconomic equity, as wells as the health of local businesses?
Building upon the architecture of MIT’s open-source race car platform, the City Science group is bringing to the community of educators and makers a new open-ended and heavy-duty self-driving platform: the Torque. Ideal for hackathons and classroom instructions, the Torque will soon allow rapid prototyping of usage scenarios and services for various context and needs.