Editing Rodney Brooks (section)

==Work==
===Academic work===
[[File:Rodney Brooks ML40.jpg|thumb|Rodney Brooks in 2005]]
Instead of [[computation]] as the ultimate [[conceptual metaphor]] that helped [[artificial intelligence]] become a separate discipline in the scientific community, he proposed that ''action'' or ''[[behavior]]'' is more appropriate to be used in robotics. Critical of applying the computational metaphor, even to the fields where the action metaphor is more relevant, he wrote in 2008 that:

<blockquote>Some of my colleagues have managed to recast Pluto's orbital behavior as the body itself carrying out computations on forces that apply to it. I think we are perhaps better off using Newtonian mechanics (with a little Einstein thrown in) to understand and predict the orbits of planets and others. It is so much simpler.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Brooks|first=Rodney|date=2008|title=Computation as the Ultimate Metaphor ("What have you changed your mind about?")|url=https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11249|access-date=2021-10-31|website=www.edge.org}}</ref></blockquote>

In his 1990 paper, "Elephants Don't Play Chess",<ref name="elephants">{{cite journal | last=Brooks|first=RA| title= Elephants don't play chess| journal= Robotics and Autonomous Systems| volume= 6|issue=1–2| year =1990| pages= 139–159| url =http://www.liralab.it/teaching/ROBOTICA/docs/brooks.1990.pdf| doi=10.1016/s0921-8890(05)80025-9|citeseerx=10.1.1.588.7539}}</ref> Brooks argued that for robots to accomplish everyday tasks in an environment shared by humans, their higher cognitive abilities, including abstract thinking emulated by symbolic reasoning, need to be based on the primarily [[sensory-motor coupling]] (action) with the environment, complemented by the [[Proprioception#Components|proprioceptive sense]] which is a critical component in [[hand–eye coordination]], pointing out that:
<blockquote>Over time there's been a realization that vision, sound-processing, and early language are maybe the keys to how our brain is organized.<ref name="BeyondComput"/></blockquote>

===Industrial work===
Brooks was an entrepreneur before leaving academia to found Rethink Robotics. He was one of ten founders of [[Lucid Inc.#Initial success|Lucid Inc.]], and worked with them until the company's closure in 1993.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} Before Lucid closed, Brooks had founded [[iRobot]] with former students [[Colin Angle]] and [[Helen Greiner]].

===Robots===
[[File:Caught Coding (9690512888).jpg|thumb|Robot at Rethink Robotics, 2013. Brooks is at the right in the lineup behind the robot. At left is [[Steve Jurvetson]], the photographer.]]
He experimented with off-the-shelf components, such as [[Fischertechnik]] and [[Lego]], and tried to make robots self-replicate by putting together clones of themselves using the components. His robots include mini-robots used in [[oil wells]] explorations without cables, the robots that searched for survivors at [[Ground Zero]] in New York, and the robots used in medicine doing [[robotic surgery]].<ref name="BeyondComput"/>

;Allen
In the late 1980s, Brooks and his team introduced [[Allen (robot)|Allen]], a robot using [[subsumption architecture]]. {{As of|2012}} Brooks' work focused on engineering intelligent robots to operate in unstructured environments and understanding human intelligence through building humanoid robots.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

;Baxter
{{main|Baxter (robot)}}
Introduced in 2012 by Rethink Robotics, an [[industrial robot]] named Baxter was intended as the robotic analogue of the [[personal computer|early personal computer]] designed to safely interact with neighbouring human workers and be programmable for the performance of simple tasks. The robot stops if it encounters a human in the way of its robotic arm and has a prominent off switch that its human partner can push if necessary. Costs were projected to be the equivalent of a worker making $4 an hour.<ref name=NYT91812>{{cite news |title=A Robot With a Reassuring Touch |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/a-robot-with-a-delicate-touch.html |access-date=18 September 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=18 September 2012 |author=John Markoff}}</ref>

===AI===
In June 2024, Brooks said [[GenAI]] is overrated.<ref>{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Ron |url=https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/29/mit-robotics-pioneer-rodney-brooks-thinks-people-are-vastly-overestimating-generative-ai/ |title=MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks thinks people are vastly overestimating generative AI |work= [[Toggle the table of contents TechCrunch]] |date=2024-06-29 |accessdate=2024-07-01 }}</ref>