 The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was established in 1979. It was the first major research institute in academia with a broad research agenda in robotics. Manufacturing, autonomous mobile systems, hazardous environments, and basic robotic sciences. Currently, the institute operates with an annual budget of $10 million, supports 35 full-time research faculty, 50 full-time programmers and engineers, and 45 graduate assistants. The Robotics Institute conducts research in basic robotic technologies, including manipulation, control, sensing, and vision. Direct drive manipulator technology was first conceived at our institute. It represents today's most advanced manipulators. The world's first direct drive arm prototype was developed in 1981. Four years later, a second version with a full six degrees of freedom was produced. Using these prototypes, researchers at the institute have been working on real-time model-based control for fast, precise, and dexterous motions. Fundamental research problems in object recognition, acquisition, and assembly are being approached in a number of ways. Objects at arbitrary positions and orientations are to be recognized. Motions are planned to accomplish the acquisition or assembly task. And finally, the plan is executed by manipulators. Robotic vision systems, artificial intelligence planning programs, and sensor-based manipulator control combine to provide solutions to this difficult problem. Providing mobility to robots presents challenging research problems. Researchers in the institute have constructed several indoor mobile robots to develop technologies for unique locomotion, for mapping the robot environment by vision and sonar sensing, for planning paths, and for navigating toward the goal. The Robotics Institute has addressed a comprehensive research agenda in advanced manufacturing technology since its founding. We have developed a forging cell capable of taking a hot billet through the forging process, part inspection, and measurement. The cell provides feedback information and corrects for hammerware that occurs during the forging process. A prototype robotic system was developed to assemble complex wire harnesses with multiple plug connectors. The system achieved reliability by incorporating force sensing and error recovery techniques. Automatic visual inspection is another important area in robot applications to manufacturing. The systems for inspecting printed circuit boards and similar complex products possess the capability of artificial skilled perception. Increasing flexibility in design, production, and decision making is the key to the factory of the future. Computer aided design systems can automatically generate programs for welding parts once they have been described in a CAD database. Decision making for operating highly automated plants will become more complex and swift as flexibility of production increases. The institute researchers have been developing intelligent management systems for planning, scheduling, and resource allocation. These systems improve the efficiency of engineering and supervisory personnel by providing expert systems to assist them in carrying out their work. An exciting new concept being developed for computer aided productivity is rapid prototyping. That is to design and prototype products in a very short period of time by fully integrating design and manufacturing functions. We've already demonstrated the ability to produce single board computer prototypes in 24 hours. This accomplishment paves the way for the micro factories of the future which the robotics institute plans to demonstrate in facilities near the campus. Robots can extend human capabilities by venturing into environments that are hazardous to humans. The remote reconnaissance vehicle and the remote core sampler developed at the institute are teleoperated robots specifically designed for use in the contaminated Three Mile Island Unit 2 containment. These robots were the only successful machine sent to the Three Mile Island plant and provided the vital information needed to plan a work agenda for the remote work vehicle. Another robot developed for nuclear accident recovery. These machines represent a class of rugged teleoperated robots that exhibit strength and adaptability for work in hostile and changing environments. We expect that these technologies will be used for toxic waste cleanup in the future. Under sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency researchers at the institute are engaged in developing a new breed of autonomous mobile robots. The Navigation Laboratory or NAVLAB is a self-contained mobile robot system with onboard sensors and computers. The goal of the project is to develop a mobile robot which negotiates roads and traverses diverse natural terrains autonomously by using sensors and artificial intelligence planners. Currently it steers itself along narrow winding asphalt paths while avoiding obstacles. With the aid of a supercomputer, the Warp, developed in Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department diverse sensor information is integrated to allow real-time navigation. Current sensing includes color video images from a TV camera and depth data from a laser scanning rangefinder. Researchers have been working on further advanced capabilities to recognize landmarks, travel across open country, and revise maps while moving. Robots for space is also part of the agenda at the institute. Research on human-robot interaction for space tele-robotics will enable astronauts to service, assemble, maintain and repair satellites in orbit with greater productivity. Recently, under NASA's sponsorship, we have started the Mars rover project. The developed technologies will be used for the Mars sample return mission to be launched by the United States at the turn of this century and for future explorations of other planets. As we have shown, the robotics institute at Carnegie Mellon University conducts a large comprehensive program of robotics research. In addition, dissemination of knowledge and technologies to American society is one of our founding premises. Since its founding, the institute has kept a close relationship with industries to facilitate the transfer of research innovations. Although it will remain interdisciplinary in nature, the field of robotics now has a sufficiently large and complex body of knowledge that must be transmitted systematically to the next generation of robotics researchers. Recognizing this need, the robotics institute is establishing a new PhD program to educate tomorrow's leaders in robotics, which is vital to our national economy and human welfare.