May 19, 2023

ACTION welcomes New Bedford Research & Robotics (NBRR) as its newest member! NBRR espouses "3 E's" - equitable innovation, education, and entrepreneurship space, that leverage creativity with technologies to support ethical outcomes with the application of frontier technologies while bridging economic, academic, and social sectors.

Organized over a little over 1 1/2 years ago, NBRR has been very active developing a thriving ecosystem through programs including small business incubation, industry R&D, research (both internal and university adjacent), STEM, and an artist in residency program to engage community.

This summer, NBRR will launch its 3-week Summer Research Intensive, where staff and university interns will develop architectural structures from robotically formed steel modules, an extension of research begun in 2014.

To add to its capacity, NBRR will be receiving two new robots in 2023. 1) The first is an ABB IRB 15000 Cobot, which includes a vision system (expected summer 2023) which will allow for deeper (and safer) interaction between student operators and the robot. 2) In late fall, they will receive an ABB IRB 6700 with a 7 meter track/ 7th axis. This very large, very powerful robot will work in a 14 foot high, 19 foot wide, 30 foot long envelope, and be applied to multiple large and small scale research outputs. This is an important step to taking on different kinds of relevant research for blue tech, renewable energy, design and manufacturing.

NBRR has recently completed Phase 1 of their work on Ford's new E-Mobility Innovation campus. Don't miss this terrific video of NBRR's AI Bot, a cutting edge sensor responsive robot and visualization system! https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7058811185227288576

As an example of how ACTION members engage with and offer support to each other, NBRR has already provided high bay space at their facility to a North Shore InnoVentures company.