Microsoft Chooses Robotics Project for Funding

Assoc. Prof. Holly Yanco, right, and student Amanda Courtemanche demonstrate a prototype of the tabletop multi-touch panel display.

Microsoft Corp. has selected Assoc. Prof. Holly Yanco’s robotics project as one of eight proposals that will share $500,000 in research funding and advanced software applications.

Yanco, who directs the Robotics Lab in the Computer Science Department, was selected from a field of 74 researchers from 24 countries by Microsoft Research following a request for proposals that examine the growing role of robots in society, from serving as human-operated tools to becoming “social” partners working with and alongside people.

UMass Lowell is sharing the funding with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of California Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, McGill University, United Arab Emirates University and University of South Florida.

Yanco’s project, entitled “Multi-Touch Human-Robot Interaction for Disaster Response,” came about after Hurricane Katrina exposed technological gaps that, despite the prevalence of satellite imagery, left many emergency responders resorting to hand-drawn paper maps to search for survivors in the aftermath of the 2005 storm. Although robot cameras were in use, they were limited to sending video only to operators at the site and not immediately to the staff coordinating search and rescue operations at the command center.

“Our proposed intelligent, multi-touch command and control display system will allow collaboration by multiple users on multiple levels,” she says. “Thus, informed discussion can take place, damages and risks can be properly assessed, an action plan can be developed and resources efficiently allocated. If a significant finding occurs in the field, the plan can be quickly updated and modified.” Yanco and her team plan to use the tabletop display to create a multi-robot interface that the command staff can use to monitor and interact with all the robots deployed at a disaster site.

“Prof. Yanco’s research into robot interaction for disaster response exemplifies Microsoft Research’s commitment to innovative research that has the potential to solve some of today’s most challenging societal concerns,” said Sailesh Chutani, senior director of Microsoft Research.  “We are delighted to partner with the University of Massachusetts Lowell on robotics research, with the potential to improve how people respond in times of disaster.”