Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Microsoft to fund UMass Lowell robotics project

By Mass High Tech Staff

University of Massachusetts Lowell professor Holly Yanco has won funding for her robotics project from Microsoft Corp., according to the school.

Yanco’s project will split $500,000 with seven other research teams, including one from MIT and one from Yale University.

Yanco’s research is intended to use tabletop multitouch displays to create an interface for emergency personnel to monitor and interact with robots deployed during the response to a disaster.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, emergency responders used hand-drawn paper maps to search for survivors in the aftermath of the 2005 storm. Robot cameras were used, but were limited to sending video only to operators at the site, and not immediately to command staff. Yanco’s research project is intended to remedy that problem.  

Yanco’s project was chosen from a field of 74 by Microsoft after its External Research division distributed a request for proposals to create more sophisticated robots.