The People-First Built Environments initiative recognizes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and resulting ubiquitous automation are imminently poised to have the single largest impact on improving the human condition and is pursuing a bold and innovative research and education agenda to shape this future. We pursue foundational insights centered on embodied and metacognitive AI and develop new enabling technologies to support transformative “humanlike” interactions between people and AI agents in physical spaces.
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The enabling technologies and the multimodal (humans, agents, environment) digital-twin analyses they support are leveraged to create a range of autonomy-assisted Living Learning Laboratories (LLLs) spanning socio-technical engineered systems that include robot-assisted physical work, autonomous driving in mixed traffic, assistive mobility for people across the ability spectrum, and occupant-sensitive built spaces. Studies conducted in the LLLs use participatory design and evaluation to demonstrate the industrial and societal impact of the researched fundamental knowledge and the developed enabling technologies, and translate the research outcomes to transform the stakeholder communities we seek to engage.
People spend up to 90% of their time inside buildings such as offices, homes, and factories and the remaining time commuting between such physical spaces (e.g., driving or walking to work or school). Transforming how people live, work, and move in the built environment in ways that prioritize health, safety, and productivity thus offers the most critical and consequential opportunity for long-term transformational societal impact.
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