The Squishy Robots That Could Save the World

Two years ago, Alice Agogino, a UC-Berkeley mechanical engineering professor, was working on a contract to build exploratory robots for NASA Ames. She had been recruited to help design what would eventually become a fleet of mobile, ultra-impact-resistant, remote-sensing robots that could protect sensitive scientific equipment during a drop from orbit onto the surface of…

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MPC Lab Members Win 2017 IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best Paper Award

ME PhD candidate Ashwin Carvalho and former PostDoc Stéphanie Lefévre, along with ME Professor Francesco Borrelli, have won the 2017 IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best Paper Award. The award, given by the IEEE Robotics Automation Society, recognizes the best paper published in the previous calendar year, and is judged on technical merit, originality, potential…

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DoD Announces Award of New Advanced Robotics Manufacturing ARM Innovation Hub

Today, the Department of Defense awarded the 14th Manufacturing USA NNMI-National Network of Manufacturing Innovation Program institute – the Advanced Robotics Manufacturing ARM Innovation Hub. It is the eighth DoD-led institute. The ARM Institute joins the Manufacturing USA network in its collective effort to help revitalize American manufacturing and incentivize companies to invest in new…

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ME Professor Alice Agogino’s BEST Lab Featured on the Discovery Channel

The BEST Lab‘s tensegrity robot research was recently featured on the Discovery Channel’s nightly science magazine, the Daily Planet. The feature contrasted their sleek and faster Rev3 of the Berkeley Tensegrity Robot with Rev1. Both Rev1 and Rev2 use elastic cords and linear actuators to shape shift the tensegrity robot into punctuated rolling motion. Rev3…

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ME Professor Homayoon Kazerooni’s Lab Advances as a Top 20 Finalist in “Robotics for Good” Competition

The Berkeley Robotics & Human Engineering Laboratory’s medical exoskeleton, Phoenix, and its specific use for children with Cerebral Palsy, was named as one of the top 20 finalists in the Robotics for Good competition. Phoenix was chosen from a pool of 664 entries, from 121 countries, in December of 2015. The competition and judging ceremony…

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