Artificial intelligence archive

New research center aims to develop second generation of surgical robots

October 24, 2014

With funding from the National Science Foundation and two private donors, Berkeley Engineering scientists will establish a research center intended to help develop medical robots that can perform low-level and repetitive surgical tasks.

Scientists consider repurposing robots for Ebola

October 23, 2014

Robotics scientists, pondering the intriguing possibility of repurposing existing search-and-rescue robots to help contain the Ebola epidemic, are planning a nationwide series of brainstorming meetings, including one Nov. 7 at UC Berkeley.

Brainy, yes, but hardly handy

September 2, 2014

Robots won’t be able to take on many human roles until they acquire a delicate sense of touch, and that “takes time, and it’s more complicated,” says Ken Goldberg, a roboticist and IEOR professor at Berkeley Engineering. “Humans are really good at this, and they have millions of years of evolution.”

Big to tiny robots on risky ground: You go first

June 13, 2014

Researchers at Berkeley Engineering’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab and ETH Zurich have suggested an approach for protecting expensive components in big robots when on difficult terrain: Send in little, inexpensively made robots ahead of them as scouts.

So, where are my robot servants?

May 29, 2014

Four years after Berkeley engineers’ video of a towel-folding robot went viral, IEEE Spectrum ponders what it will take to develop robots that can become true helpers and companions in people’s homes. Berkeley roboticist Ken Goldberg says he doubts that ever-smarter machines will replace human contact, “but people aren’t always available.”

Science Goes to the Movies: ‘Transcendence’

May 12, 2014

In a conversation with NPR’s Science Friday, EECS professor Stuart Russell explains what it would take to “upload” a mind to the Internet, and what is really worrisome about strong artificial intelligence.

What if robots had whiskers?

January 21, 2014

Researchers with Berkeley Lab and Berkeley Engineering have created e-whiskers – highly sensitive tactile sensors made from carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles that should have a wide range of applications including advanced robotics, human-machine interfaces, and biological and environmental sensors.

Berkeley Engineering team builds lamp robot at hackathon

September 9, 2013

A reporter for the Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper shadows four Berkeley Engineering students as they try repeat the Berkeley team’s 2012 victory at the PennApps Hackathon, the largest such student-run event in the country.

Personal robots moving closer to reality

November 28, 2012

Personal robots that can bake cookies, shoot pool and — in the hands of EECS professor Pieter Abbeel — fold laundry are evidence of a new generation in artificial intelligence, jump-started by a Silicon Valley tech company’s PR2 robots.

Putting water online

May 1, 2012

In spring 2012, the Floating Sensor Network project, led by associate professor of EECS Alexandre Bayen, launched a flotilla of 100 robots down the Sacramento River to provide data on water movement and pollutant spread.

Winging it

May 1, 2012

A small, roach-like robot with plastic wings borrowed from a toy is providing important insights into the natural history of flight.

When the car is the driver

February 17, 2012

This week the state of Nevada finalized new rules that will make it possible for robotic self-driving cars to receive their own special driving permits. Do people notice a self-driving car and gawk? “We get a lot of thumbs up,” says Berkeley Engineering alum Anthony Levandowski (M.S.’03 IEOR), one of the leaders of Google’s self-driving car project. Google’s fleet of robotic cars has driven more than 200,000 miles over highways and city streets in California and Nevada.

Expanding the reach of robotics

November 29, 2011

From flying and crawling through quake-ravaged wreckage to performing dexterous feats of minimally invasive surgery and enabling paraplegics to walk, the vision of what robots and intelligent machines can do has come a long way since I first began the robotics effort at Berkeley in 1983.

Mechanical flying cockroach unveiled at Cal lab

October 30, 2011

Recently, the Department of Homeland Security issued a proposal for a disposable robot that could be used in search and rescue missions. This week, a lab at UC Berkeley unveiled a contender: a mechanical cockroach with wings. “What’s really interesting here,” says Ron Fearing, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, “is that we don’t have things that fly really well, that fly like birds. And we don’t have things that run really well, like a cockroach or a rat can. But combining the two, we can actually do more than with either of them by itself.”

In search of a robot more like us

July 11, 2011

Designing a robot to mimic the basic capabilities of motion and perception would be revolutionary, researchers say. Yet the challenges remain immense, far higher than artificial intelligence hurdles like speaking and hearing. The limits of today’s most sophisticated robots can be seen in a robotic towel-folding demonstration pioneered by a group of students at the University of California, Berkeley, last year. “Our end goal right now is to do an entire laundry cycle,” said Pieter Abbeel, a Berkeley computer scientist who leads the group.