How the University Archives collaborated with labs across campus to uncover CMU’s robot stories — while laying the groundwork for Robotics Project 2.0
By Sarah Bender
Visitors entering Carnegie Mellon University’s new Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) at Hazelwood Green are greeted by a striking sight. Robots hang overhead in the atrium. Displays trace Pittsburgh and the area’s transformation from a steelmaking powerhouse to a global hub for robotics.
But long before the robots were suspended above the atrium floor, Kathleen Donahoe was making connections across campus to find them.
As lead archivist for the University Archives’ Robotics Project, Donahoe and her fellow archivists spent months tracking down robots, photographs, other historical materials, and the people who know about them scattered across dozens of labs and departments. The resulting exhibit became a chance not only to showcase the history of robotics, but also to highlight the work being done to preserve it.
The storytelling at the RIC also marks the beginning of a new phase of the Libraries’ Robotics Project — one focused not just on preserving robots, but on capturing and sharing the human stories behind one of CMU’s most influential fields.
Building the Exhibit
Finding content for the exhibit meant navigating a university environment where robotics research is spread across dozens of labs and departments. It also meant tracing a lengthy history, dating even before the 1979 founding of the world’s first academic Robotics Institute.
Donahoe connected with School of Computer Science Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives Phillip Lehman and College of Engineering Chief Operating Officer Richard Mundy, who talked to the labs in their respective departments and helped identify researchers with relevant materials for the display. Kavčić-Moura Professor of Computer Science Howie Choset provided a highly articulated snake robot. Mechanical Engineering Professor Aaron Johnson offered up the bipedal walker and the six-legged RHex robot. The Gecko Adhesion Based Sea Starr (GASS) Crawler robot and an example of Paleobionics — a soft robot based on fossil data used to reconstruct how extinct organisms moved — came from Softbiotics researchers.
Other pieces came directly from the Archives’ collections. These included components from Ivan Sutherland’s Trojan Cockroach robot, one of Herbert A. Simon University Professor Emerita Manuela Veloso’s soccer robots, and the Robotanist camera system designed by a team led by Research Professor George Kantor to collect farming data too hard for humans to obtain.
Selecting which robots to display from among hundreds required balancing storytelling with preservation. Because parts of the exhibit are exposed to direct sunlight, Donahoe had to avoid exposing robots made primarily from materials like soft plastics that could deteriorate over time.
“We had to think carefully about which pieces could safely be displayed,” she said. “Once something is in our care and considered an archival object, we want to make sure it’s preserved as long as possible.”
University Libraries’ Associate Dean for Distinctive Collections Julia Corrin, Associate Director of Creative Heidi Wiren Kébé, and Anniversary Exhibits and Publishing Managing Editor Brad King added their expertise to the project, coming up with initial designs for the exhibit and crafting narratives and captions. Campus Design and Facilities Development Project Associate McKenzie Bonnett served as project manager, and Perkins Eastman stepped in to finish the designs.
“Carnegie Mellon has been creating robots for 50 years, but the public doesn't often have the chance to see these projects up close,” Corrin said. “The RIC gave us a unique opportunity to celebrate our history and show how Carnegie Mellon researchers have shaped the world around us and are imagining the future. It also provides a unique opportunity to inspire the young students who will visit the RIC for events and programs to consider a career in STEM.”
“Current and future College of Engineering and School of Computer Science faculty and students now have an additional world class facility in which they can work on the development of technologies for the betterment of humanity,” added Mundy. “The displays along the entrance corridor are designed to educate visitors about the rich history of robotics and automation at Carnegie Mellon and in the Pittsburgh region, and our work with the Libraries has resulted in a visual celebration of the people and technology involved. The Center will continue this legacy by building new innovations to benefit society.”
Impermanent Machines
Another challenge Donahoe had to navigate was the ephemeral nature of robotics as a field. In many research labs, robots are built to answer a specific question or test a particular idea. Once that work is done, the machines are often taken apart so their components can be reused for the next project.
That means the robot itself — the most visible artifact of the research — doesn’t always survive.
This problem is at the heart of the Robotics Project, which was launched in 2019 to create a home for robotics’ past, present, and future. A partnership with the School of Computer Science, the project worked in consultation with leading archives and museums to rethink how archivists collect and preserve technology-driven material.
In the first phase of the project, funded by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, CMU archivists consulted with roboticists, archives professionals, and digital and physical conservators to create a model for collecting and preserving complex robotics material. This model was then shared through a toolkit.
As she assembled components for the exhibit, Donahoe saw again and again how a robot’s story can survive through photographs, videos, and project documentation even if the robot itself wasn’t preserved. But in some cases, even those records were difficult to locate.
“It was challenging to find images of some things, which really drives home the need for the Robotics Project,” she reflected. “We have what we have in the collection because someone allowed us to preserve them. But if you don’t save materials or give them to us, then they’re gone.”
Robotics Project 2.0
When Donahoe first joined the Robotics Project, much of the focus was on understanding how the Archives could collect robots coming from the locus in Newell Simon Hall. But advances in robotics are happening all across campus — and in addition to preserving that history, the archivists want to share it with campus and the world.
The RIC exhibit is the launching point of the Robotics Project 2.0, and will be followed by the upcoming release of a new Oral History collection focused on the people behind innovations like Navlab, one of the earliest autonomous vehicle projects.
By collecting interviews alongside photographs, records, and surviving robots, the Archives aims to build an even more comprehensive record of robotics history at Carnegie Mellon that captures and shares both the technology and the human stories behind it. This approach aligns with the Archives’ overarching aim, headed by Corrin, to tell stories through events and exhibits.
“In many ways, we occupy a space that’s more like a museum than an archive,” King said. “What’s unique about this incredible thing that Julia has built is the way our exhibits and other initiatives can work as a vehicle for storytelling.”
“Discovery rarely follows a straight line. Stories help us understand the ‘why’ and the ‘how,’ not just the ‘what,’” Corrin explained. “At Carnegie Mellon, where new fields and discoveries happen every day, and interdisciplinarity is celebrated, telling these stories is especially important. We create these exhibits not only to explore the past, but hopefully to help inspire our faculty, students, and community to envision new futures.”
Through the Robotics Project 2.0, the Archives hopes to ensure that the history of robotics at Carnegie Mellon is preserved as the field continues to evolve. From historic machines and photographs to the memories of the people who built them, the project aims to document the ideas, experiments and collaborations that shaped one of the university’s most influential fields — and to make those stories accessible to future researchers and the broader public.
The RIC’s common spaces, including the lobby and exhibition space, will be publicly accessible during certain hours. A community open house held on Monday, March 16 will offer visitors a first look at the building.