(FOA)-National
Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots (NRI-2.0); February 26,
2020
Agency
National
Science Foundation
U.S.
Dept. of Agriculture
National
Institute of Food and Agriculture
National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
The
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Description
The
NRI-2.0 program builds upon the original National Robotics Initiative (NRI)
program to support fundamental research in the United States that will
accelerate the development and use of collaborative robots (co-robots). A
co-robot is a robot whose main purpose is to work with people or other robots
to accomplish a goal. An ideal co-robot is an adaptable partner, not limited to
a narrow set of specified interactions or functions, but able to significantly
enhance team performance despite changes in its role, its teammates, or the
team’s collective goals. The focus of the NRI-2.0 program is on ubiquity, which
in this context means seamless integration of co-robots to assist humans in
every aspect of life.
The
program supports four main research themes that are envisioned to advance the
goal of ubiquitous co-robots: scalability, customizability, lowering barriers
to entry, and societal impact, including human safety. Topics addressing
scalability include how robots can collaborate effectively with orders of
magnitude more humans or other robots than is handled by the current state of
the art; how robots can perceive, plan, act, and learn in uncertain, real-world
environments, especially in a distributed fashion; and how to facilitate
large-scale, safe, robust and reliable operation of robots in complex
environments. Customizability includes how to enable co-robots to adapt to
specific different tasks, environments, or people, with minimal modification to
hardware and software; how robots can personalize their interactions with
people; and how robots can communicate naturally with humans, both verbally and
non-verbally. Topics in lowering barriers to entry should focus on lowering the
barriers for conducting fundamental robotics research and research on
integrated robotics application. This may include development of open-source
co-robot hardware and software, as well as widely-accessible testbeds. Outreach
or using robots in educational programs do not, by themselves, lower the
barriers to entry for robotics research. Topics in societal impact include
fundamental research to establish and infuse robotics into educational
curricula, advance the robotics workforce through education pathways, and
explore the social, economic, ethical, security, and legal implications of our
future with ubiquitous collaborative robots.
Collaboration
between academic, industry, non-profit, and other organizations is encouraged
to establish better linkages between fundamental science and engineering and
technology development, deployment, and use.
The
NRI-2.0 program is supported by multiple agencies of the federal government
including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Questions concerning a particular project's focus, direction, and relevance to
a participating funding organization should be addressed to that agency's point
of contact, listed in section VIII of this solicitation.
Announcement
Number:
NSF
20-522
Closing
Date:
February
26, 2020
Link
to Full Announcement
https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20522/nsf20522.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click
Contact
Information
David
Miller
(703)
292-4914