Robots are Coming!

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That's Phil Callihan, spokesperson for the Robotics Technology Consortium and executive director of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, talking at his usual level of barely restrained excitement about autonomous vehicles--cars and trucks that can drive themselves. "Five years from now, you'll see some autonomous vehicles on the road," he predicts. "But in ten years, when cargo is transported at night to avoid rush hours, you'll wonder where all the trucks went."

With his boyish looks and spiky hair, Callihan's appearance matches his enthusiasm. Though his U-M degree is in political science and history, "I worked my way through the university as an IT guy. The IT wave hit just as I was going through school, and that experience really gave me a footing in the industry. I went right from the university to NCMS."

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences is a nonprofit founded in 1986 "to help stave off foreign competition in the machine-tool industry," Callihan says. It now has 300 corporate members, representing "the entire breadth of American manufacturing." Where do robots fit in? "Robots fit in great," Callihan says with delight. "And it started with the DOD.

"The Department of Defense has tons of what they call 'aging weapons systems,' where they still use the equipment but the manufacturer has gone out of business for the parts. We're talking helicopters, the F-15, the M-1 tank. And while we were working with the DOD to help them solve their maintenance problems, the DOD said, 'Can you help us with robotics?' How cool is that!