NEW AUTOLAB SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UC Berkeley's AUTOLAB, directed by Professor Ken Goldberg (*), is a center for research in robotics and automation, with 15+ students pursuing projects in Cloud Robotics, Deep Reinforcement Learning, Learning from Demonstrations, Computer Assisted Surgery, Automated Manufacturing, and New Media Artforms.
- Cloud RoboticsWhat if robots and automation systems had unlimited computation and memory and could share data and code? This is becoming practical with Wireless networking and data centers. Working with Google, Siemens, Cloudminds, and Cisco, we are developing new Cloud Robotics algorithms and platforms such as the Dexterity Network.
- Computer Assisted Surgery To improve patient care and more accurately target treatment within the human body, we're developing new geometric models and algorithms for automating surgical subtasks such as suturing and debridement using the da Vinci surgical robot. We are also developing models of soft tissues and new methods for dose planning, brachytherapy, and planning algorithms for steering flexible needles.
- Dexterity Network (Dex-Net) A Cloud-Based Network of 3D Objects for Robust Grasp Planning: A data-driven approach to robust robot grasping and manipulation based on a new dataset of 3D object models that currently includes over 10,000 unique 3D object models and 2.5 million parallel-jaw grasps. Dex-Net includes a Multi-Armed Bandit algorithm with correlated rewards from prior grasps to estimate the probability of force closure under sampled uncertainty in object and gripper pose and friction.
- Automated Manufacturing To produce the high quality, rapidly evolving products of the future, we're establishing a science base for automated order packing and assembly by analyzing its basic components. We develop efficient geometric algorithms for feeding, fixturing, and grasping 3D objects.
- New Media Artforms To discover what can be expressed with new technologies such as networks, robots, digital cameras, and sensors that could not previously be expressed, we're designing art installations that explore issues related to cultural history, privacy, and "telepistemology: what is knowable at a distance."
Contact: Ken Goldberg (goldberg@berkeley.edu)
(*) Professor of IEOR, EECS, School of Information, Art Practice at UC
Berkeley and Radiation Oncology at UCSF,
2111 Etcheverry Hall, UC Berkeley
Recent Projects & News
New CITRIS "People and Robots" Initiative (April 2015)
Cloud Robotics, Deep Learning, Human-Centric Automation, and Bio-Inspired Robotics are among the primary research themes in the new CITRIS People and Robots Initiative, with 75 affiliated faculty from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz.
Please visit our website for details about the Initiative, Featured Projects, News, Faculty, Advisory Board, and over 1000 faculty research papers published in the past year and a half.
RAVEN Surgical Robotic System
A robot assisted tele-surgery for tele-health using "apprenticeship learning."
California Report Card
An online platform which explores how smartphones and networks can enhance communication between the public and California's government leaders.
The Rashomon Project
An open-source toolkit for assembling and analyzing multiperspective video timelines, in order to gain a better understand of contested events.
Opinion Space
A new social media interface used to encourage public dialogue and participatory democracy.
Steering Flexible Needles through Soft Tissue
Needles are used in many forms of medical diagnosis and treatment, from tissue biopsies to placement of radioactive seeds for cancer treatment.-
Biomechanical
Simulation and Planning
An interactive simulation of needle insertion and radioactive seed implantation. -
Memento
Mori
On April 4, San Francisco Ballet's Muriel Maffre danced to sounds and lighting that were triggered by live seismic data. -
Demonstrate
For six weeks, online participants shared control of a robotic webcamera set over UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza. 
Other Art Projects