The NERVE Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell is a robotics research, testing, and training facility.

10 years of breaking robots at the UMass Lowell NERVE Center

The UMass Lowell NERVE Center is an interdisciplinary robotics testing, research, and training facility that evaluates robot capabilities, human performance, and human-robot interaction. The mission of the NERVE Center is to improve the development of robot systems by enabling evaluation across many domains including industrial automation, exoskeletons and wearable robots, and disaster response.

Test and evaluation services are available on-site, in the field, and remotely; NERVE can provide test apparatuses, sensors, data collection, personnel, logistics, and analysis. Affiliated faculty include those from Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physical Therapy, and Biomedical Engineering. NERVE project outputs are leveraged to form the basis for standard test methods via several ASTM committees, including E54.09 (response robots), F45 (robotics and automation), and F48 (exoskeletons).

Want to work with the NERVE Center? We operate on grants and contracts funding to execute basic (6.1) and applied (6.2) research and test & evaluation; see the Research Capabilities page. NERVE services, facilities, and equipment also available to external users via Core Research Facility (CRF); see the Services pages for more information.

The UMass Lowell NERVE Center provides benchmarking tools for robotic manipulation such as the YCB Object Set and the NIST Assembly Task Board!

Apply Online For The YCB Object Set
Apply Online For NIST Assembly Task Board #1

Center Leadership

DirectorsDepartment Representatives
  • Co-Director: Holly Yanco, UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell
  • Co-Director: Adam Norton, UMass Lowell
  • Assistant Director: Yi-Ning Wu, UMass Lowell
  • Reza Azadeh, Computer and Information Sciences
  • Pei-Chun Kao, Physical Therapy and Kinesiology
  • Richard Nuckols, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • Paul Robinette, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliated FacultyStaff
  • Maru Cabrera, Computer and Information Sciences
  • David Claudio, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • Guy DeMartinis, Physics and Applied Physics
  • Murat Inalpolat, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • Kshitij Jerath, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • Julie Keysor, Physical Therapy and Kinesiology
  • Ramaswamy Nagarajan, Plastics Engineering
  • Sam Reig, Computer and Information Sciences
  • Jiabin Shen, Psychology
  • Kelilah Wolkowicz, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • Kathryn Dennison, Admin
  • Brendan Donoghue, Mechatronics Engineer
  • Brian Flynn, Robotics Engineer
  • Peter Gavriel, Robotics Technician
  • Joseph Meli, Network Admin
  • Michael Poppo, Biomechanics Engineer

Collage of three domains: human movement and performance measurement, unmanned aerial vehicles, and industrial robot manipulators