Ford, University of Michigan partner on robot laboratory
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — 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.
“As we all drive and use our vehicles and go about our day-to-day lives, I’m sure all of us have moments in our day where we could use a little help or a little assistance,” said Ken Washington, Ford’s chief technology officer.
“We are going to be working on drone technology, walking robots, roving robots, all types of robots in this facility and the ways in which they can make people’s lives better,” Washington said. “And we’ll do it in a way that addresses questions and fears around safety and security. The more people see how these robots can interact with society and interact with humans, the more comfortable they’ll get with them.”
The building on the university’s Ann Arbor campus brings together researchers from 23 buildings and 10 programs into one space. Those working on two-legged disaster response robots can test them on a 30-mph treadmill studded with obstacles or on a stair-stepped “robot playground” designed with the help of artificial intelligence.
Biomedical engineers are looking at developing lighter, more stable prosthetic legs. Ford engineers are exploring how upright Digit robots can work in human spaces.
“We want them to be able to operate in realistic situations ... you get out in the real world where there’s rolling, twigs,” said Jessy Grizzle, the Robotics Institute director. “There’s rocks. There’s boulders. There’s holes that you can’t see because the grass is cut flat, and then you want your robots to respond well and stay upright just like a human would.”
Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford and other automakers are investing billions of dollars in autonomous vehicles. and robotics is expected to play a major role in their development. Ford announced in February that it was increasing its autonomous vehicle investment to $7 billion, from sensing systems to research into applications such as Digit, a spokesman said.
People one day may see a robot similar to Digit emerge from a driverless vehicle, stroll across their lawn and leave a package at the door of homes in their neighborhood, according to Washington.
By the time a concerned Gloucester woman called PETA for help, one of the outdoor cats she had been feeding was barely alive — unresponsive, emaciated, struggling to breathe and unable to use her hind legs. In another recent case, a so-called “community cat” came to PETA’s Norfolk shelter with a traumatic injury so infected that there was nothing but a bloody cavity where her face used to be.
Both of these cats’ ears were tipped, indicating that they had been trapped, neutered and released (TNR). Both cats suffered for weeks as they became weaker and more vulnerable. They were finally euthanized to alleviate their suffering, but countless other “community cats” are deprived of that dignity.
They die alone, out of sight and out of mind. Where’s the “community” in that?
Virginia legislators recently tabled Senate Bill 1390, which sought to absolve people who call themselves “TNR program volunteers” of accountability for the cats’ welfare, effectively erasing legal protections such as the provision of food, water, shelter and veterinary care. SB1390 was opposed by a stakeholder coalition of Virginia-based organizations dedicated to animal welfare, wildlife conservation and rehabilitation, and protection of Virginia’s natural resources.
PETA’s shelter receives calls daily from all over the region about free-roaming cats. Usually, the caller wants the cats removed out of concern for the cats or because they are perceived as a nuisance. Very often, the cats are sick and/or injured. One county whose shelter does not accept cats recently referred a family to PETA after a relative died, leaving behind more than 40 cats that were unsocialized, had feline leukemia and/or feline AIDS, or suffered from respiratory infections so severe that some had ulcerated or missing eyes.
PETA’s shelter never turns away animals, but many other agencies — buckling under intense pressure to achieve high “save rates” — have stopped accepting most cats and promote the release of domestic cats outdoors to fend for themselves. Homeless cats are not “superfelines.” They’re biologically identical to the cats with whom we live. They die in subfreezing temperatures, get hit by cars or cut to shreds when they climb into car engines seeking warmth, and are preyed upon by coyotes and dogs. Minor issues such as flea infestations and upper respiratory infections can quickly escalate into life-threatening conditions when left untreated.
Cats that are “released” outdoors are not “saved” — their deaths are merely moved from the comfort of a vet’s office or animal shelter to the misery of the streets. They’re harmed and killed by people who don’t want them climbing on cars or defecating in gardens. Recent incidents include a cat in Hampton that was found with a steel-jaw trap clamped on her leg; a dehydrated kitten in Roanoke whose leg was “hanging on by a small piece of skin” and had to be amputated; and at least 10 cats that were shot in Loudoun County, five of which died.
Cats are nonnative predators who “cause considerable wildlife destruction and ecosystem disruption,” according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. One study estimates that as many as 4 billion birds and 22 billion mammals are killed by cats annually in the United States. An 11-year retrospective peer-reviewed study by the Wildlife Center of Virginia found that mortality rates from cat attacks exceed 70% in small mammals and 81% in birds, even when the victims were cared for in a state-of-the-art veterinary hospital. Anyone who cares about animal welfare should consider these animals’ suffering, too.
Legalizing cat abandonment is not a compassionate way to address Virginia’s cat overpopulation crisis. Our coalition seeks the opportunity to collaborate as part of an expert stakeholder workgroup to develop legislation that would reduce the population of free-roaming cats and mitigate their impact on the commonwealth’s native wildlife and natural resources. We look forward to working on and solving this long-standing problem humanely.
Daphna Nachminovitch