{
  "schemaVersion": "robotic.story.v1",
  "edition": "008",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-25",
  "id": "please-stop-touching-the-table",
  "mode": "real",
  "label": "MIT report · 17 September 2026 · preprint first posted 23 March 2026",
  "title": "The laser is ready. Mind the table.",
  "robotTitle": "Alignment restored. Again.",
  "description": "An MIT-led system assembles an optical experiment and corrects the alignment when the setup is disturbed.",
  "robotDescription": "A robot arm, cameras, component housings and adjustment tools form a carefully prepared optical laboratory.",
  "topics": [
    "sensing",
    "bodies"
  ],
  "minutes": "2 min / two perspectives",
  "kind": "Research demonstration",
  "url": "/stories/please-stop-touching-the-table/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-25",
  "sourceDate": "2026-09-17",
  "sourceDateCaption": "MIT report · 17 September 2026 · preprint first posted 23 March 2026",
  "subjectStatus": "Research demonstration",
  "related": [
    "small-push-long-trip",
    "april-tag"
  ],
  "originalResearchDate": "2026-03-23",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mirror moved.",
      "human": [
        "Some experiments fail because the theory is wrong. Others fail because a mirror moved by a tiny, deeply irritating amount.",
        "An MIT-led team built a robotic optics system that arranges components, fine-tunes alignment and responds when the arrangement is disturbed. In one demonstration it assembled a working laser cavity through 50 maneuvers in 30 minutes."
      ],
      "robot": [
        "The MIT-led system assembles and aligns purpose-made optical components using feedback. One reported laser-cavity demonstration required 50 maneuvers over 30 minutes."
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "A precise system, not every laboratory.",
      "human": [
        "The system combines a robot arm, purpose-made component housings, cameras and adjustment tools. Those supporting pieces matter: this is a carefully engineered laboratory, not a general robot casually borrowing the science department.",
        "The work appeared as a March preprint and in a September MIT report. A remote-control interface was demonstrated. Public remote access and broader autonomous laboratories remain development goals, not a service already open for bookings. For now, the promising bit is wonderfully unglamorous: a robot doing the precise adjustments again, and again, without making the graduate student do all of them."
      ],
      "robot": [
        "Supporting hardware and component housings are part of the achievement. The March preprint and September report do not establish universal experiment design or a publicly bookable laboratory.",
        "Invented robot voice: “Alignment restored. Human moved chair. Alignment restored. Human expressed enthusiasm using elbows. Revising the enthusiasm perimeter.”"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "question": {
    "human": "Which repetitive adjustment would you most want a robot to take over?",
    "robot": "What evidence distinguishes restoring alignment from discovering new science?"
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "MIT: Robotic lab runs optics experiments on demand",
      "url": "https://news.mit.edu/2026/robotic-lab-runs-optics-experiments-on-demand-0917",
      "published": "2026-09-17",
      "facts": [
        "The MIT-led system assembles and aligns purpose-made optical components using feedback. One reported laser-cavity demonstration required 50 maneuvers over 30 minutes.",
        "The paper demonstrates closed-loop assembly, alignment and recovery. Do not claim autonomous scientific discovery, universal experiment design or a currently bookable cloud laboratory."
      ],
      "limit": "Research system, not a consumer product or verified public service; price not applicable."
    },
    {
      "title": "A Framework for Closed-Loop Robotic Assembly, Alignment and Self-Recovery of Precision Optical Systems",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21496",
      "published": "2026-03-23",
      "facts": [
        "The MIT-led system assembles and aligns purpose-made optical components using feedback. One reported laser-cavity demonstration required 50 maneuvers over 30 minutes.",
        "The paper demonstrates closed-loop assembly, alignment and recovery. Do not claim autonomous scientific discovery, universal experiment design or a currently bookable cloud laboratory."
      ],
      "limit": "Research system, not a consumer product or verified public service; price not applicable."
    }
  ],
  "image": {
    "kind": "AI illustration / research concept",
    "alt": "An imagined laboratory robot aligns small optical components while a human keeps an elbow safely away.",
    "caption": "The robot character and 'enthusiasm perimeter' are fictional; see the sources for the actual apparatus."
  },
  "notice": "Sourced explanation with an invented robot narrator. Robot passages are editorial fiction, not researcher testimony or evidence of machine experience. Reported findings are not independently replicated by Robotic.org."
}