Meet Dr. Robot

By: Maxine Nunes | Posted 2 April 2014
(This original article is no longer active –
http://www.drivethedistrict.com/2014/04/02/meet-dr-robot/)

Daniel Lee is having way too much fun at work. In fact, he’s pretty much living the fantasy of any kid who ever loved robots. He builds them.

But it’s not all fun and games. Lee brings a slew of heavyweight credentials to this dream job. He got his PhD in condensed matter physics from MIT, he’s a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, and is director of the school’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. Now that’s a resume.

Under his supervision, students and faculty at the GRASP Lab created Thor and Trooper, two robots who will be competing in the finals of the Defense Department’s DARPA Robotics Challenge.