The Ford Robotics Building has completed and opened on the University of Michigan (U-M) campus. The $75 million project represents a singular new home for the university’s relationship with Ford and acts as a showcase for robotics research, cross disciplinary collaboration, and innovative industry/education collaboration.
Located on the University of Michigan North Campus, the building anchors the west end of a Michigan Avenue mobility testbed that begins in Detroits Corktown neighborhood and runs through Dearborn to Ann Arbor. The four-story, 134,000-sf project is an interdisciplinary center for mathematics, engineering, and computer programming faculty and researchers. The facility will be home to researchers that were previously spread across 23 separate buildings and is also the first robotics facility to co-locate an industry team (Ford’s mobility research center) with a university’s robotics leadership.
HED, in an effort to reflect a robotics program incorporates both theory and making, designed the building to appear both extroverted and enclosed simultaneously. From the outside, the most striking feature is the glass-clad facade that curves along Hayward Street. Composed of large bands of fritted glass with 30-inch-deep sunshades spaced 42 inches apart, the south-oriented glass wall allows diffused daylight deep into the building interior. The facade also allows visitors to see the activities occurring within.
Upon entry, visitors arrive within a four-story atrium defined on one side by the curved smooth-facing glass wall and balconies for the top three floors. The atrium is designed for a wide variety of uses and special events with a cafe, large-scale video screen, and a sophisticated sound system. The atrium is heated through displacement ventilation. Researchers all enter the labs via a shared team collaboration space, ensuring chance encounters, interaction, and collaboration between them.
HED designed the Ford Robotics Building to promote proximity and spontaneous interaction between students, faculty, researchers, and visiting industry professionals. The building includes the new hub of the U-M Robotics Institute on the first three floors and Ford’s robotic and mobility research lab on the fourth floor.
The custom U-M research labs are designed for robots that fly, walk, roll, and augment the human body. Multiple labs are incorporated within the building, including the Ronald D. And Regina C. McNeil Walking Robotics Laboratory for developing and testing legged robots. This specific lab has an in-ground treadmill that can hit 31 mph and a 20% grade, as well as carry obstacles to test walking robots that could aid in disaster relief and lead to better prosthetics and exoskeletons. A rehabilitation lab is designed for advanced prosthetics and robotic controls with a movable “earthquake platform” that can tilt in any direction while force-feedback plates measure ground contact.
A three-story fly zone allows for the testing of drones and other autonomous aerial vehicles indoors. An outdoor Mars yard was 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 is designed for testing robots on stairs, rocks, and water surrounded by motion capture cameras. A high-bar garage space for self-driving cars allows for teams to test connected and automated vehicles in urban and suburban environments. Ford roboticists occupy the building’s fourth floor research lab and offices.
The Ford Robotics Building is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification. HED provided architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering services on the project.
Related Stories
University Buildings | Nov 6, 2017
A reconstructed building sets the standard for future rehabs at Cornell
Early AE collaboration played a major role in moving this project forward efficiently.
University Buildings | Oct 13, 2017
The University of Oklahoma receives its first residential colleges
The residential communities were designed by KWK Architects and combine living and learning amenities.
University Buildings | Oct 12, 2017
USC to debut new bioscience center next month
The building is designed to maximize recruitment and interaction of scientists and researchers.
University Buildings | Oct 12, 2017
The Center for Wounded Veterans is a first for a university campus
The Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education is the first building of its kind on a U.S. college campus.
University Buildings | Oct 10, 2017
A 1920s cheese factory is now a university science building
Almost 15,000 sf of space was added to the original, four-story building.
Sustainability | Oct 9, 2017
New Arizona State University building will reach triple net-zero performance
The science and research complex will include an atrium biome filled with plants and water.
Higher Education | Sep 18, 2017
Campus landscape planning of the future: A University of Wisconsin-Madison case study
Recognizing that the future health of the campus and lake are interdependent, this innovative approach will achieve significant improvements in stormwater management and water quality within the university’s restored, more connected network of historic and culturally rich landscapes.
University Buildings | Sep 15, 2017
New Blinn College Residence Hall hopes to decrease the size of the campus housing wait list
In 2016, more than 400 students were placed on the wait list due to lack of available on-campus housing.
Sports and Recreational Facilities | Sep 11, 2017
Mid-size, multi-use arenas setting a trend for the future
While large 20,000-seat sports venues aren’t going away, mid-size venues provide advantages the big arenas do not in a time of budget constraints and the need for flexibility.
Giants 400 | Sep 7, 2017
Top 95 university construction firms
Turner Construction Co., The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., and Barton Malow top BD+C’s ranking of the nation’s largest university sector contractor and construction management firms, as reported in the 2017 Giants 300 Report.