Squishy robots are rapidly deployable mobile sensor robots. They are impact-resilient tensegrity structures that enable a sensitive payload of sensors and other electronics to be safely airdropped from drones or other aerial vehicles from heights up to 300 meters. Additionally, future robots will be able to maneuver on the ground, even in rough terrain.
In 2017, Alice Agogino*, a UC-Berkeley mechanical engineering professor, was working on a contract to build exploratory robots for NASA. 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 a moon. But then she read a report, from the International Red Cross and Crescent, suggesting that a generous portion of casualties among first responders—emergency workers tasked with initial disaster management—could be linked to poor situational awareness on the ground. She then realized that everything that made the squishy bots perfect for space — their autonomous sensing power, remote control capabilities, and unprecedented impact durability — would serve them equally well as part of the advanced guard of Earth-bound disaster responders.
* Dr. Alice Agogino is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Squishy Robotics which commercialized this technology for a range of applications on planet Earth: disaster response, military applications, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and package delivery.
She is currently the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and is affiliated faculty at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Her prior research includes related topics in machine learning, tensegrity robotics, sensor fusion, and education.Agogino serves as Chair of the Graduate Group in Development Engineering and is Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies. She directs research in the BEST (Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities) Lab and the Product Design MEng program.
Agogino has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and has served on a number of committees of the National Academies, including the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine. She co-authored the National Academies’ study on Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Science, Engineering, and Medical Workplaces (2018); From Science to Business: Preparing Female Scientists and Engineers for Successful Transitions into Entrepreneurship (2012) and Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering (2007). Agogino has won numerous teaching, research, outreach and mentoring awards, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.
In 2020, she received the Athena Award for Academic Leadership which recognizes senior leaders in academia or national labs (faculty or staff) who have a demonstrated record of technical accomplishments and have encouraged or mentored young scholars or colleagues.
Watch Dr. Alice Agogino’s keynote talk at the National Academy of Engineering on the future of engineering in general and about education, innovation and gender equity in mechanical engineering in particular.