UC Berkeley

Although we've seen many robotic water striders over the years, scientists are still finding new aspects of the insects to replicate. Recently, for instance, researchers created a strider-bot that zips across the water's surface via fans on its feet.

Scientists have created what they say is the world's smallest untethered flying robot, by taking a unique approach to its design. To minimize size and weight, they've moved the bot's power and control systems out of its sub-centimeter-wide body.

When someone has been rendered tetraplegic by a spinal cord injury, they may still retain partial use of their wrists. A new device could help such folks lift cumbersome objects, by adding a robotic hand to the back of their dominant hand.

The tiny Pacific mole crab (Emerita analoga) has a unique talent, in that it can burrow straight down into the sand using its flexible legs. An experimental new robot copies that capability, and it could actually have some practical applications.

Ordinarily, quadcopter drones have to tilt their front end downward when flying forward, increasing their frontal area and thus increasing drag. An experimental new drone gets around this problem, by only tilting its rotors.

Old electronics are tricky to recycle, meaning they clog up landfills while locking valuable metals away. Now scientists have demonstrated printed circuits that can be degraded on demand, returning their materials to reusable forms.

A team from the University of Illinois and UC Berkeley has demonstrated a new cooling method that sucks heat out of electronics so efficiently that it allows designers to run 7.4 times more power through a given volume than conventional heat sinks.

Quadcopters may be versatile drones, but those four spread-out arms do keep them from performing certain tasks. An experimental new drone addresses that shortcoming, with arms that passively fold down as needed.

When leaping geckos crash head-first into vertical surfaces such as tree trunks, they're able to hang onto that surface instead of bouncing off and falling to the ground. Scientists have discovered what allows them to do so, and copied the capability in a small robot.

In a breakthrough that could open up exciting new possibilities in computing and electronics, scientists in the US have developed a two-dimensional magnetic material that is the thinnest in the world, measuring just a single atom thick.

UC Berkeley engineers have created an insect robot that can scamper along quickly and turn on a dime – perhaps literally. The bot owes its fancy footwork to… well, its fancy feet, using varying voltages to alternate stickiness and make sharp turns.

Most plastics don’t break down easily – and when they do, they create problematic microplastic particles. A new type of compostable plastic is embedded with enzymes that, when triggered, quickly break the material down to its constituent molecules.