This New York Times article on modern robotics – largely focused on Rodney Brooks’s company Rethink Robotics – also discusses innovations by UW CSE’s Emo Todorov:
“In contrast to the fixed repetitive tasks performed by today’s robot arms and hands, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Washington have built several prototype hands with pliable fingers that can move as quickly as humans’ …
“‘Despite decades of automation, there are relatively few types of tasks that have been automated,’ said Emanuel Todorov, a cognitive scientist at Washington.
“This is now changing rapidly as a new wave of manufacturing robots appears, driven by the collapsing cost of computing and the rapid emergence of inexpensive sensors that give robots new powers of vision and touch.”