Inspired by nature, architecture and swarm intelligence, two Princeton Engineering professors created a wall of robotic “flowers” that visitors interacted with during a recent exhibition.

Engineers at Princeton have built a robot to help with that most essential household task: tidying up.

Exploring a new way to teach robots, Princeton researchers have found that human-language descriptions of tools can accelerate the learning of a simulated robotic arm lifting and using a variety of tools.

Radhika Nagpal, an expert in bio-inspired robotic systems and collective behavior, has joined the Princeton faculty.

Ryan Adams, a professor of computer science, agrees that these machines are the foundation of the modern economy, but he thinks there is a lot of room for improvement.

In Jimmy Wu’s apartment, a scrum of mini robots bump, swerve, and zip chaotically across a tabletop. It looks like an aggressive bumper car rally, but within a few minutes, order emerges.