The Fujitsu-Carnegie Mellon Physical AI Research Center will live within the approximately 150,000-square-foot Robotics Innovation Center in Pittsburgh that CMU unveiled earlier this year, using the center’s specialized facilities to test new systems, as described in a recent news release.
Interest in physical AI, which embeds artificial intelligence capabilities in physical systems like robots, is growing across industries, according to a report from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET).
The news release said interest stems from potential to improve productivity, mitigate labor shortages and promote safety in manufacturing, logistics, construction, infrastructure and health care. However, physical AI’s potential is inhibited by gaps in the supply chain and lack of collaboration and standardization, according to the CSET report.
The new Fujitsu-CMU Physical AI Research Center aims to bring experts in different arenas together, including professors of robotics, language technologies, engineering, machine learning and philosophy. These CMU researchers will work alongside Fujitsu scientists and technicians to develop physical AI systems that meet real-world problems.
“At this research center, Fujitsu will create new value through the convergence of AI, computing, networking and robotics, and accelerate the societal implementation of reliable physical AI,” Vivek Mahajan, leader at Fujitsu, said in a public statement.
The initiative builds on past AI work at CMU both in research spaces and in curriculum integration. Last September, the Bank of New York Mellon invested $10 million in the creation of an AI Lab on campus. In January, the university launched an AI learning resource called Learnvia, which serves as a tutor for students in gateway courses at 38 higher-education institutions nationwide.
“The Fujitsu-Carnegie Mellon Physical AI Research Center builds on CMU’s focus on developing AI and robotics systems to tackle real-world problems and the university’s collaboration with industry to put those innovations into practice and inspire what’s next,” Martial Hebert, robotics professor and dean of the School of Computer Science at CMU, said in a public statement. “Physical AI will fuel the machines of tomorrow, allowing for competent decision-making, enhanced efficiency, greater safety, and, perhaps most importantly, trust to work alongside humans in critical fields.”
