In earlier days, this was the nation’s watercress king. Then Huntsville became the Rocket City. On Monday, Gov. Bob Riley announced that the Huntsville-Decatur metropolitan area will soon be “the robotics capital of the world.”
Allowing for hyperbole, Riley appears to be on target. A 53-acre site on U.S. 31 across from Calhoun Community College, which will oversee the project with help from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will eventually become a $71 million robotics education and training center like none other.
It will train some 450 students a year in state-of-the-art robotics. It will become a NASA and U.S. Army Missile Command research and development center. It will also serve as an R&D facility for companies to build and adapt commercial robots.
And it may do something else good for this region’s economy that goes beyond its stated mission: It may help lure a massive Volkswagen assembly plant that would further boost growth and prosperity.
State officials are understandably cagey about the latter possibility. Legislators from the area, commenting on the robotics center that Calhoun won over competing state community colleges, sounded more than cautiously optimistic but less than certain that this might be a key part of a package that will convince Volkswagen officials to call Huntsville home.
Visitors look at REEM-B, the new humanoid robot unveiled by Pal Technology Robotics, at its launch in Reem Island in Abu Dhabi, June 11, 2008. The 1.47-meter tall robot, which is able to walk dynamically, grasp objects, navigate within buildings, accept voice commands and recognize faces, is one of the most advanced in the world, manufacturers said. Developed by Pal Technology Robotics, REEM-B supercedes the older REEM-A robot, which was launched last year.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan hands a gift to the new humanoid robot REEM-B
Visitors touch the new humanoid robot REEM-B
