University of Texas at Austin to Lead $30 Million Robot Collaboration Center
The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded a significant grant of $30 million by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish and lead the Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation. This new center, one of three new NSF Science and Technology Centers, will focus on researching how humans and robots can safely and effectively adapt and work together. The funding will provide $6 million annually for five years, with eligibility for an additional five years of funding. The center aims to build upon the work of Good Systems, a team of UT researchers dedicated to ethical artificial intelligence and proper AI usage. Peter Stone, head of the UT School of Computing and a founding member of Good Systems, stated that the project's objective is to understand the long-term impact of human-robot interaction to design robots that prioritize human well-being and adapt alongside them. The center includes 39 researchers from six universities and industry partners like Amazon and NVIDIA.
