University of Michigan opens Ford Motor Company Robotics Building

The University of Michigan and Ford Motor Co. have opened a facility on the Ann Arbor campus to develop robots and roboticists.

The university says the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building is a four-story, $75 million, 134,000-square-foot complex that will be the new hub of the U-M Robotics Institute.

Its first three floors hold custom research labs for robots that fly, walk, roll and augment the human body—as well as classrooms, offices and maker spaces. The fourth floor houses Ford’s first robotics and mobility research lab, as well as 100 Ford researchers and engineers.

“To me, this new building brings to life a collaborative, interdisciplinary community that I’m proud to host at Michigan Engineering," says Alec D. Gallimore, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering.

The new facility brings together University of Michignan researchers from 23 different buildings.

The lobby is a wide-open atrium surrounded by transparent glass-walled labs. It was designed with outreach in mind, so passersby and visitors can watch research happen in real time. Classrooms are set up for hybrid instruction.

The architect is HED.

The U-M Robotics Institute aims to advance human-centered robots—machines and systems that interact with people and move through our spaces, extending the human body and the process of human cognition. New labs enabling this include:

The Ronald D. and Regina C. McNeil Walking Robotics Laboratory for developing and testing legged robots, with an in-ground treadmill that can hit 31 miles an hour and a 20% grade, as well as carry obstacles. Walking robots could aid in disaster relief and lead to better prosthetics and exoskeletons.
A Rehabilitation Lab, for advanced prosthetics and robotic controls. It includes a movable “earthquake platform” that can tilt in any direction, while force-feedback plates measure ground contact.
A three-story fly zone to test drones and other autonomous aerial vehicles indoors, before moving to the adjacent outdoor M-Air research facility. Autonomous aerial vehicles could perform safer inspection of infrastructure like windmills and bridges.
A Mars yard, designed with input from planetary scientists at U-M and NASA, to enable researchers and student teams to test rover and lander concepts on a landscape that mimics the Martian surface.
An AI-designed “robot playground” outdoor obstacle course for testing robots on stairs, rocks and water, surrounded by motion capture cameras.
High-bay garage space for self-driving cars, located just down the road from the Mcity Test Facility, for putting connected and automated vehicles through the paces in simulated urban and suburban environments.

YouTube Video from the University of Michigan: