University of California Berkeley

I love me a bioinspired robot that pulls off challenging feats with cues from nature. Researchers have shown off the one-legged Salto bot mimic the way squirrels leap effortlessly between precarious branches and stick the landing on the first attempt.

Text-to-image AI models trained on original images can memorize them, generating replicas that raise an issue of copyright infringement. A new AI model has been developed that’s trained on only corrupted images, removing that particular legal headache.

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.

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.

Previously Salto the one-legged robot liked to keep on the hop since it had trouble coming to a stop without falling over – no surprise without another leg to fall back on. Now it's nailing its landings, with its jumping accuracy also benefitting.

Scientists at the University of California (UC) Berkeley have designed an inflight docking system that adds charge to quadcopters while they're in flight.

​Most 3D printers work by either depositing or melting building material in successive layers. Unfortunately, this results in the finished objects looking kind of chunky, as the ridges between layers are visible. A new process, however, uses light to create smooth-edged items out of resin.

Think about all the things you picked up today. Now think about how much mental energy you put into each of those activities. Very little, right? For robots though, picking up a variety of shapes poses a significant challenge – one that's gotten easier thanks to work carried out at UC Berkeley.

A breakthrough manufacturing method, using a technique known as nanoimprint lithography, has been devised that creates high-performance transistors with wireless capabilities on rolls of common, flexible plastic.

When it comes to the price of most products, US$40,000 is pretty high. In the case of powered exoskeletons, however, it's cheap. Nonetheless, that's approximately what suitX's Phoenix modular exoskeleton should sell for.

Researchers from the UC Berkeley's Biomimetic Millisystems Lab have successfully demonstrated a cooperative launching system that puts a lightweight ornithopter on the back of its VelociRoACH robotic carpet crawler for a short run before the H2Bird takes to the air.

An interactive electronic skin developed at Berkeley responds to pressure by instantly lighting up, and could be used to create smart bandages, wallpapers that act as a touch screen, and more sensitive robotic hands.