Alice M. Agogino

Research Bio

Alice Agogino is interested in new product development, computer-aided design and design databases, design theory and methods, intelligent learning systems, information retrieval and data mining, multiobjective and strategic product design, nonlinear optimization, probabilistic modeling, intelligent control and manufacturing, multimedia, graphics, multimedia and artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems. A spin-off of her work on space exploration with NASA, she is conducting research and translating it to practice with her start-up Squishy Robotics. Research that engages Squishy Robotics includes rapidly deployable tensegrity robots for disaster response, and early detection and characterization of wildfires and methane.

Research Expertise and Interest

intelligent learning systems, information retrieval and data mining, multiobjective and strategic product design, nonlinear optimization, probabilistic modeling, intelligent control and manufacturing, sensor validation and fusion and diagnostics, wireless sensor networks, multimedia and computer-aided design, design databases, design theory and methods, MEMS Synthesis and CAD, artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems, gender equity

In the News

Squishy robots can drop from a helicopter and land safely

New soccer-ball-shaped robots, created by engineers at UC Berkeley and Squishy Robotics, have the remarkable ability to fall from a height of more than 600 feet and be no worse for wear. Built of a network of rods linked by contracting cables, they can also shapeshift in order to crawl from one point to another.

Key to good design? Start with the end user

An engineer working on a project to improve parks would do well to visit a nearby park to get “a fuller context of what visitors experience,” says mechanical engineering grad student Lora Oehlberg. Oehlberg instructs classes at Berkeley known as the human-centered design course thread, looking at incorporating the needs of the end user into the engineering of goods, products or services.

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.
May 14, 2019

The Squishy Robots That Could Save the World

Popular Mechanics
Lunne Peskoe-Yang
A team of scientists led by engineering professor Alice Agogino has developed a new lightweight and squishy, shape-shifting robot that can be dropped from great heights by aircraft into hazardous situations and relay information to first responders. The work evolved out of a project she was conducting with NASA scientists, and she and some of the NASA team members co-founded Squishy Robotics to develop the technology, with aid from Berkeley's SkyDeck accelerator. The team conducted more than 200 interviews with first responders nationwide to understand their needs. "Everything was surprising," she says. "There's a whole ecology around first responders. It's not only the fire department -- it turns out it's Homeland Security, the military, and even utilities employees. A lot of fires are being started by faulty industrial electronic equipment." Those interviews have yielded a range of new ideas to pursue. "We're working on putting rotors on the robot to make them low-to-the-ground drones, which can maneuver throughout buildings," Professor Agogino says. "And we've had a request to make them float [for use in water rescues and flood incidents]."
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May 2, 2019

These squishy robots are designed to survive falls, save lives

NBC News Online
Tom Metcalfe
A team of scientists led by engineering professor Alice Agogino has developed a new lightweight and squishy, shape-shifting robot that can be dropped by aircraft into hazardous situations and relay information to first responders. "We think that it can save lives" says Professor Agogino , CEO of Squishy Robotics, the startup she founded in 2017 to commercialize the technology. The two-pound robot has survived a 600-foot drop without incurring damage, and she believes it could withstand greater falls. They're also developing a mobile version that can move on ground, powered by small electric motors. "It's not going to be fast, and we are not designed for speed," she says. "But the advantage is it can go over rough terrain. It can shift its shape to go between boulders and rocks," using what she calls a "punctuated rolling motion."
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