This Preschool Is for Robots
September 2, 2015 - On the seventh floor of Berkeley’s technology research hall, a bright blue and yellow plastic ray gun sits on a long table, along with wooden spoons, model planes, and a set of square and round pegs. There’s also a stack of those ultra-large Lego blocks kids go nuts for. The toys are all for a spoiled toddler named Brett, who also happens to be a robot. read more

New Approach Trains Robots to Match Human Dexterity and Speed
May 21, 2015 - In an engineering laboratory here, a robot has learned to screw the cap on a bottle, even figuring out the need to apply a subtle backward twist to find the thread before turning it the right way ... they represent significant advances in robotic learning, by a group of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, who have trained a two-armed machine to match human dexterity and speed in performing these tasks. read more

New 'deep learning' technique enables robot mastery of skills via trial and error
May 21, 2015 - UC Berkeley researchers have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence. read more

This robot learns new skills just like a human
May 26, 2015 - A robot is only as smart as its programming. Learning on the go has been the sole purview of living things. That was, until a team of scientists at UC Berkeley programmed a robot to learn simple tasks through trial and error, just like humans do. read more

'Brett the Robot' can play with Lego, by itself
May 26, 2015 - A robot capable of teaching itself basic tasks -- including screwing a cap on a bottle of water and building a toy plane -- has been described as a "major milestone" in artificial intelligence. The new robot ('BRETT', or Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks) is built and designed by a team at UC Berkeley, and uses a form of reinforcement learning -- essentially a form of trial and error -- to pick up new tasks. read more

BRETT The Robot Learns To Do New Things Just Like A Kid Does
May 26, 2015 - UC Berkeley researchers have come up with new algorithms to help robots learn like humans do -- through trial and error. The trouble with developing artificial intelligence is just how much programming is involved in spelling out every aspect of a task. Then, if a robot or software program doesn?t encounter that task in the real world exactly as it was programmed to, it usually can?t adapt. read more