Fujitsu and Carnegie Mellon launch joint physical AI research

Fujitsu Limited and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have announced the launch of the Fujitsu-Carnegie Mellon Physical AI Research Center, where Fujitsu and CMU will jointly advance research and development of core technologies to enhance the capabilities and scalability of physical AI.

Physical AI is expected to contribute to addressing key societal challenges — such as improving productivity, mitigating labour shortages and ensuring safety — by enabling AI systems to operate in the real world and interact with people and their environments, thereby driving the automation and optimisation of operations across sectors including manufacturing, logistics, construction, infrastructure and health care.

Realising this vision requires the integration of expertise and technologies across multiple domains, including robotics, AI, simulation, human–robot interaction and ethics and social acceptance. This makes not only advancements in individual fields essential, but also interdisciplinary collaboration and efforts that bridge academic research with real-world deployment.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of physical AI, faculty members from CMU across a wide range of disciplines — including robotics, machine learning, language technologies, human–computer interaction, electrical and computer engineering, civil and environmental engineering and philosophy — will participate in the joint research. Researchers will work alongside Fujitsu scientists, engineers and technicians to develop physical AI systems designed to tackle real-world challenges.

Fujitsu also aims to realise a physical AI platform that can be applied to mission-critical domains supporting social infrastructure, leveraging its strengths in providing integrated AI, computing and networking capabilities.

Fujitsu is developing Fujitsu Kozuchi Physical OS, which integrates robots, sensors, systems and physical spaces, and enables the coordinated operation of multiple robots and systems in accordance with operational instructions by combining two capabilities: brain intelligence, which enhances robots’ adaptability to tasks based on prior experience and human imitation, and spatial intelligence, which provides information about real-world environments in which robots operate.

“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,” said Martial Hebert, Dean and University Professor of Robotics, School of Computer Science, CMU. “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.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Galeanu Mihai