2. SOUNDBITE (English) Alec Gallimore, Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan:
"So, it's really a facility for the notion that robots are for people and not in competition with people, but for people."
3. Tight of robots moving
4. Wide of robot on a treadmill
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ken Washington, Chief Technology Officer, Ford Motor Co.:
"These programs give kids opportunities that they otherwise wouldn't have. With this Ford robotics building, we're going to be building a curriculum in partnership with historically Black colleges and universities, to give kids the chance to study robotics and then come to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and work side-by-side with Ford engineers and University of Michigan professors to begin their journey in a robotics career."
Digit marches on two legs across the floor of the University of Michigan's Ford Motor Co. Robotics Building, while Mini-Cheetah _ staccato-like _ does the same on four and the yellow-legged Cassie steps deliberately side-to-side.
A grand opening was held Tuesday for the four-story, $75 million, 134,000-square-foot complex. Three floors house classrooms and research labs for robots that fly, walk, roll and augment the human body.
On the top floor are Ford researchers and engineers and the automaker's first robotics and mobility research lab on a university campus.
Together, they will work to develop robots and roboticists that help make lives better, keep people safer and build a more equitable society, the school and automaker announced Tuesday.
"These programs give kids opportunities that they otherwise wouldn't have. With this Ford robotics building, we're going to be building a curriculum in partnership with historically Black colleges and universities, to give kids the chance to study robotics and then come to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and work side-by-side with Ford engineers and University of Michigan professors to begin their journey in a robotics career," said Ken Washington, Ford's chief technology officer.
Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford and other automakers are investing billions of dollars in autonomous vehicles. Robotics is expected to play a major role in their development.
The University of Michigan and Ford also are working with two historically Black colleges in Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman, allowing students there to enroll remotely in a pilot robotics course.
