One-bit Bots: Robotic Construction Outside the Box | Matt Carney | TEDxBeaconStreet

Robots are terrible at working in unstructured environments. Discretely assembled, reversibly interlocked, physically encoded: digital materials provide a highly structured environment, optimal for robotic construction crews. Robot and material, designed together, turn the factory inside-out.
Orbiting within the fields of robotics and product design, Matt Carney has spent most of his professional years driving major design efforts at Meka/Redwood Robotics, IDEO, and Makani Power. Matt was trained with formal degrees in mechanical engineering, along with many hours hanging around old dudes in shops.
Matt Carney has spent years in industry designing humanoid robots, smart phones, energy harvesting kites, and implantable medical devices and is currently at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at