University of California, San Diego
Public university where Harold Cohen developed the generative art program Aaron and researchers built electronics-free pneumatic soft robots.
2 milestones
Pneumatic-logic soft robot without electronic components, University of California San Diego, 2021
In 2021, Michael T. Tolley and colleagues at the University of California San Diego published a soft walking robot controlled entirely by pneumatic logic circuits embedded in its body, with no electronic components, demonstrating autonomous gait and environmental responsiveness through fluidic computation alone.
Aaron: Harold Cohen's Generative Art Programme
From 1973, Harold Cohen at the University of California San Diego developed Aaron, a rule-based programme that autonomously generated original drawings by encoding explicit conditions for artistic decision-making, making it one of the earliest sustained AI systems for creative production.