Engineering in the Time of COVID: ESD Members Adapt and Assist

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in March, Michigan companies, like the rest of the country, began to make adjustments for the safety of employees, clients, students and the community.

Members of The Engineering Society of Detroit were quick to adapt. Universities adjusted the learning environment to online courses in order to allow students to safely complete the semester’s work. In addition, university research continued as many learning institutions switched their focus to coronavirus solutions. BY GABE CHERRY Until the robots rolled up, Korean eatery Miss Kim looked like any other COVID-stilled storefront in downtown Ann Arbor, with chairs upended on tables and hastily scrawled signs papering the windows. Inside, chef and managing partner Ji Hye Kim, a University of Michigan alum, cooks takeout orders. While the restaurant does a brisk carryout business, Kim says she brings in less than half the revenue she did before COVID closed the dining room.

Business is booming, however, for the trickle of threewheeled, autonomous REV-1 delivery robots that silently park themselves at Miss Kim’s curb, ready to be loaded with food before they wheel away to pre-programmed destinations. Refraction AI, a University of Michigan startup that began delivering food in late 2019, says its pilot deployment of eight robots is doing four times as many runs since the crisis began.

“We can deliver for about half the price of conventional delivery services,” said Matthew JohnsonRoberson, co-founder of Refraction AI and a U-M associate professor of naval architecture and engineering. “We thought of that as a nice benefit for restaurant operators, but we had no idea how important it would become as restaurants struggle to get through the crisis. I’m glad that we’re also able to add some capacity to the delivery infrastructure and help restaurants get more food out to customers.”

Refraction AI was co-founded in late 2019 by Johnson-Roberson and mechanical engineering assistant

Meanwhile, corporate leadership and staff modified their work spaces to remote and Zoom meetings kept the day-to-day work going for many. While some manufacturing facilities closed for safety, most are gearing up or have returned with a new method of safety and operations. At the same time companies with unique technology and research results made adjustments for new uses to do their part.

The following stories are just a few examples of how ESD members stepped up in a multitude of effective

U-M Delivery Robots Help Restaurants Weather Crisis

endeavors.

Robotic food deliveries have quadrupled.

professor Ramanarayan Vasudevan with the help of U-M’s Office of Technology Transfer. Miss Kim is one of five pilot program restaurants that use the robots for some of their Ann Arbor deliveries. Approximately 500 customers are participating in the pilot; they order food through a custom app.

The battery-powered robots have a top speed of about 15 miles per hour and operate mainly in bike lanes. Their low speed enables them to use inexpensive camera-based navigation systems, making their cost feasible for a delivery service.

While ordering food for delivery has been touted as a way to support local businesses in a time of crisis, Kim points out that traditional delivery services charge restaurants hefty fees that eat up as much as 30% of per-order revenue. She says the REV-1 deliveries provide an easy alternative that’s also safer and easier for her employees.

Refraction AI has installed UV sterilizing lights in the robots’ food compartments, and now wipes down the robots between deliveries, but the delivery system is otherwise unchanged from the restaurants’ perspective. “We had to educate [human] drivers about not entering the restaurant, about how to do contact-free pick-up, all that stuff,” Kim said. “With a robot, they pull up, we drop the food in, close it, and it’s on its way.”

End users like Jessica Sendra say the REV-1s have been a valuable option as the COVID pandemic has stretched delivery networks to their limit. Sendra has been getting groceries delivered through Refraction AI’s recently launched partnership with Ann Arbor market The Produce Station. “It’s really hard to get a [grocery] delivery slot from anybody right now, so when I heard they were looking for people, I said ‘yes, definitely,’” Sendra said. “They sterilize everything and you just flip open the lid, pull out your groceries, close it and it goes on its way. It’s very easy.”

For Refraction AI, however, adapting to the age of COVID hasn’t been so seamless. The company has had to rethink the logistics of its entire business to keep running. The staff is building robots as fast as it can and Johnson-Roberson says it has been a challenge for its 15 employees to adapt and keep up.

Assembly workers at Refraction AI’s space in downtown Ann Arbor now work tag-team style, with only one employee working on a robot at any given time. The two employees—called “tele-ops drivers”— that monitor the robots via a wireless data connection now work from home, using a remote setup that enables them to take control of the delivery vehicles if they get into a situation that their autonomous systems can’t navigate.

Johnson-Roberson, for his part, is immersed in a world of video chats, as the very hands-on business of building and operating robots is increasingly done electronically.

“Building robots is an incredibly physical task,” he said. “You’re always making changes, testing, trying something else. Trying to keep that iteration cycle going remotely is a challenge. But it also forces us to really lean into all this technology that we’ve created. We’re finding that we don’t necessarily have to lay people off or slow down, we just need to find new ways of doing things. I think we’ve been pretty successful at that, and I hope we’re helping our customers do the same.”

Refraction AI has turned to Roush Industries to ramp up production; Roush has brought in a dedicated crew to build the robots’ carbon fiber exterior shells with the goal of having 25 robots on the road by mid-summer. Those robots will serve more restaurants in Ann Arbor, and also deliver for the company’s recently launched grocery delivery service. Johnson-Roberson sees his role helping businesses through the crisis as just the beginning of a new era of robots improving life for us humans.

“In this crisis, we’re all seeing how some are putting themselves at risk so that others can enjoy the benefits,” he said. “I’m hoping that we can build models that are more ethical, more sustainable and more just, and I hope that this is a moment that catalyzes roboticists to play a role in that by trying as hard as they can to push the technology from the lab out there into the real world.”

Gabe Cherry is the Senior Writer & Assistant Magazine Editor for the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

Michigan Technological University

When COVID-19 hit, delays in testing for the virus were a key challenge. Rural and remote regions like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were hard pressed to get enough tests for patients.

Immediately, Michigan Tech partnered with local hospitals to begin receiving and testing patient samples on campus to save doctors and health care providers at least 24 hours, and up to a week, of waiting for COVID-19 test results. The lab had the capacity to run 40 samples per hour on two machines, and the team eventually expanded with more equipment and staffing. “The safety of our community and our lab technicians is most important,” said Dave Reed, vice president for research at Michigan Tech. “We live in small, tight-knit communities in the UP and we want to take care of each other and Michigan Tech can help by ensuring people get timely and accurate COVID-19 test results.” Rep. Greg Markkanen and Sen. Ed McBroom helped initiate the lab testing facility and advocated for test sites in the U.P. “The people of the Copper Country and Western U.P. want to be able to take care of their own,” said Markkanen, adding that Michigan Tech’s testing facility eases the strain on small communities’ health resources. “The Herculean effort of the folks at Michigan Tech will meet our communities’ needs to get tests and results quicker, so that health care workers can do their jobs and help monitor this crisis.” Time is of the essence—and so is accuracy. The Michigan state labs have helped verify the accuracy and

protocols in the Michigan Tech facility. “Quick testing for an illness like the coronavirus is critical to helping treat patients who have caught the disease and to help stop the spread,” said McBroom. “With results often taking more than a week as tests traveled downstate, it was apparent that this would be a problem for the Upper Peninsula. I’m proud of the professionals at Michigan Tech who recognized this issue, developed a plan for a lab on campus and turned it into a reality.” In addition to lab testing, Michigan Tech is also working on vaccine technology and technology to clean personal protection equipment (PPE).

DENSO

DENSO employees—across three of its locations in Michigan and North Carolina—joined the effort to battle COVID-19 by taking on projects intended to protect health care workers. DENSO employees used their expertise in engineering, design, molding and manufacturing to support special customer and partner projects to produce respirator components. While a temporary shift in production, the DENSO team was able to produce components to help increase the number of respirators in circulation during the pandemic.

DTE Energy

From helping customers facing financial insecurity with their utility bills to fully activating the DTE Energy Foundation and its nonprofit partners to supply food, shelter and other basic needs – DTE immediately stepped in to assist. Teaming up with area businesses and organizations to help the city’s youth, the DTE Energy Foundation, Detroit Public Schools Community District, Kellogg Foundation, Quicken Loans, General Motors and The Skillman Foundation worked to put a computer with high-speed internet, along with technical support, into the hands of every Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) K-12 student before the school year

Dow Chemical Company

Isolation gowns are among the most used and needed personal protective equipment for healthcare professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this critical need, Dow Chemical Co. collaborated with nine partners across industries to develop and donate 100,000 isolation gowns to help frontline workers in Texas, Louisiana and Mexico.

The end-product, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Level 2 gowns, required design, testing, package development and a supply chain. In this case, each collaborator brought

Earlier in March, DENSO’s engineering and sales teams, located at its North American headquarters in Southfield, Michigan, also worked to support a customer request to bring powered air purifying respirators (PAPR) from design to production in just under 25 days. About 200 DENSO employees worked on this project, and the team – from global leadership, to DENSO’s design and manufacturing engineers, production experts, and security guard personnel—came together to collaborate with the customer at an accelerated speed.

closed. The Connected Futures Initiative addresses the digital divide that was made even clearer throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The program was off the ground in three weeks. The school district estimates that only 10 percent of its students have access to both a device and internet access. When schools were closed in early March, this issue was even clearer as students could not take advantage of online learning or connect with teachers on video chats. The program will benefit the entire family as well: students can learn while their families will be able to easily search and apply for jobs.

their unique expertise to the table, all donating valuable time and resources to the project. The gown is made with polyethylene nonwoven coated with a layer of polyethylene film made with resin donated by Dow. Other partners included: Brazil-based nonwoven fabrics company Fitesa; Troy-based Cadillac Products Packaging Co.; Minnesota-based 3M and Hickory, N.C.-based Shurtape Technologies LLC; Canadian mobility company Magna International, Inc.; Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont; Burton-based Landaal Packaging Systems; and Canadian firm Plastixx FFS Technologies.