UMass Amherst NERVE Center Site Will Enable Robotics Testing for Agriculture, Aquatics, Infrastructure Inspection and More

Content

This story was first published by the UMass News Office.

Robots have already changed the world by automating previously dangerous, time-consuming or tedious tasks—but robotics as a field continues to evolve, moving into new sectors and finding new applications.

A new UMass Amherst NERVE (New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation) Center site aims to facilitate that evolution by expanding robotics testing. The new site will focus on testing of robotics for some high-impact, fast-growing sectors including agriculture, aquatics, healthcare, and even shoe and sports performance. It will also include portable and lab equipment for field testing and create a single point of contact for robotics developers to access testing resources across the commonwealth.

“The focus areas of our new NERVE Center site have been shaped by the strengths of the UMass Amherst campus,” said Holly Yanco, who holds a joint appointment as distinguished professor of computer science and distinguished professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UMass Amherst. Yanco co-directs the NERVE Center with Adam Norton of UMass Lowell.

The NERVE Center will partner with the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and UMass Extension to test robotic systems for agriculture; the Gloucester Marine Station and the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories will help with testing aquatic robot systems; for infrastructure inspection and monitoring, the center will collaborate with the University of Massachusetts Transportation Center and the Department of Civil Engineering; and for testing related to human-centered healthcare, the center will partner with the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, the Institute for Applied Life Sciences and the UMass Amherst Department of Kinesiology. Campus robotics facilities and expertise will also be applied to athletic shoe and sports performance testing. 

The first New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center site is housed at UMass Lowell. It is an interdisciplinary robotics research and testing facility spanning computer science, mechanical engineering, physical therapy and biomedical engineering.

“Whether you’re studying computer science, mechanical engineering, kinesiology, psychology, industrial design, mathematics, you name it, there is a contribution to be made,” Norton said. “For test and evaluation, each of these subjects brings new perspectives and axes for assessment: autonomy, mobility, dexterity, robustness, perception, the list goes on. The NERVE Center offers opportunities for students to participate in benchmarking exercises, human subjects testing protocols, and designing test methods to evaluate robots, humans, and human-robot interaction.” 

Research at the graduate and undergraduate levels will benefit from the RoboBench grant, Yanco noted. “The collaboration with UMass Lowell also provides opportunities for our students to work on cross-campus projects, whether testing at the UMass Lowell NERVE Center site or by participating in a research exchange between campuses,” she said.

“The expansion of the NERVE Center to UMass Amherst is part of our strategic initiative to foster economic development both in Western Mass and across the commonwealth,” Yanco added. 

A $2 million grant to UMass Amherst to establish the new NERVE Center site was part of $6.6 million in funding awarded through the RoboBench grant program, a capital grant opportunity supported by the Mass Leads Act to strengthen robotics within the state by improving access to resources needed to commercialize robotics, including infrastructure such as testing platforms and manufacturing facilities.

“This award reflects the collective effort of the robotics faculty in engineering and CICS,” said Frank Sup, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and director of the Mechatronics and Robotics Research Lab (MRRL) at UMass Amherst; he is also co-director of UMass’s Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation. “We look forward to building the new set of shared testing resources to support research, create new opportunities for collaborations with companies and help grow the robotics ecosystem in Western Massachusetts.”

The other RoboBench grantees were Boston University, MassRobotics and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The awards were announced by the Healey-Driscoll administration to strengthen Massachusetts’ growing robotics industry.