Ford partners with University of Michigan in $75M robotics facility – MLive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI A new $75-million, 134,000-square-foot robotics facility at the University of Michigan is now open.

The Ford Robotics Building on the north campus will serve as a world-class, advanced robotics facility and the new hub of the UM Robotics Institute, according to a university news release. The four-story building will include research labs for all types of robotics, as well as classrooms, offices and makerspaces.

The fourth floor will also house Fords first robotics and mobility research lab on a university campus and 100 Ford researchers and engineers, according to the release. UM and Ford will collaborate to show how robotics can create a more equitable society, including creating a more inclusive curriculum to open up more opportunities for underserved students, the release states.

To me, this new building brings to life a collaborative, interdisciplinary community that Im proud to host at Michigan Engineering, Alec D. Gallimore, UM dean of engineering, said in a statement. Our Robotics Institute upholds an explicitly inclusive climate and a culture that believes in the fields potential to serve as an enabler for all, especially those who have previously been underserved. In this way, we aim to push the robotics field, and engineering more broadly, to become equity-centered -- intentionally closing, rather than unintentionally expanding, societal gaps.

Ground broke at the facility in April 2018 and it was scheduled to open in early 2020, but work was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ford Robotics Building anchors the west end of the Michigan Avenue mobility corridor that begins in Detroit and runs through Dearborn to Ann Arbor, according to the release.

With Fords development of the former Michigan Central Station and plans to overhaul its Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn, the partnership with UM will allow the two institutions to experiment with potential mobility solutions for the future, according to the release.

How Ford plans to transform iconic Detroit train station into innovative 30-acre campus

To close gaps in public transit access across southeast Michigan, Ford and UM are working to develop a first-of-its-kind corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles, according to the release.

Autonomous vehicles have the opportunity to change the future of transportation and the way we move, said Tony Lockwood, technical manager of autonomous vehicle research at Ford. As this new technology rolls out, having our Ford team working on campus collaborating with the academic world will help us shorten the time it takes to move research projects to automotive engineering, unlocking the potential of autonomous vehicles.

Other labs at the Ford Robotics Building include:

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Ford partners with University of Michigan in $75M robotics facility - MLive.com