Project Grant 1927023

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering (CFDA 47.041) EAGER grant to Northeastern University provides $229,680 from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2025 to evaluate the feasibility of a soft and compressible electronic skin (e-skin) device that integrates a touch sensor with a soft electromagnetic coil-based flexible actuator. The goal is to replicate natural skin characteristics, including receptors embedded in soft tissue tightly coupled with muscles, to enable...

This SBIR Phase I award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) provides $304,952 to Sol Robotics, Inc. to develop a novel robotic arm architecture designed to improve the reach, payload capacity, and affordability of automation solutions for industries such as agriculture, construction, and warehousing. The project aims to create a prototype robotic arm featuring proprietary linear actuation technology and parallel truss...

This three-year, $243,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program, will fund research to develop smart skins for robotic prosthetic hands. The grantee, Villanova University in Pennsylvania, will collaborate with researchers across the country to fundamentally understand adaptive tactile interactions between shape-morphing robotic skins and grasped objects. This will...

This $272,617 National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) award to the University of Illinois supports fundamental research on high-dimensional proprioceptive and tactile sensing methods for soft robotic grippers. The project aims to develop a new framework, called DeepSORO, that uses embedded cameras and advanced deep learning models to provide real-time, high-resolution sensing and state estimation of the grippers' kinematics and dynamics. This research seeks to...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $650,000 Project Grant under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program to Carnegie Mellon University. The goal of this 1-year project is to develop a transformative, bio-inspired redesign of the robotic hand to improve functional dexterity and address national challenges like the high abandonment rates of upper limb prosthetics and the need for dexterous robotic capabilities in hazardous occupations. Key efforts include...

This SBIR Phase I award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) provides $275,000 to Rehabnetics Medical LLC to develop a robotic wrist-hand exoskeleton device for physical therapy. The project aims to create a prototype system that can provide tailored rehabilitative exercises based on quantified measures of a patient's motor function recovery. Key technical milestones include developing objective diagnostic markers, an...

This Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund the development of advanced, vision-based tactile gel-robots capable of perceiving and manipulating soft, fragile objects. The $312,960 award will integrate fatigue-resistant photoelastic gels, stress-interpreting photometry systems, and physics-informed machine learning to enable multi-physical perception and ultra-gentle handling capabilities. This research will advance robotics in...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program award to Purdue University supports research to develop high-performance tactile sensors that can detect various sizes of objects within microseconds, comparable to human skin. The $510,542 grant, awarded on November 1, 2023, will fund the manufacturing of these sensors using 3D printing and conformal polymer coating techniques. The research aims to create a new manufacturing capability for hierarchically architected structures with...

This three-year $200,000 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research at Case Western Reserve University to develop adaptive mechanics, learning and intelligent control technologies to improve soft robotic grasping. The university researchers will work to foster innovation in soft robotics through engineering research aimed at enabling soft robotic end effectors with enhanced grasping capabilities. Building on prior work, the project...

This $454,020 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will support collaborative research at the University of Michigan to develop soft materials with embedded sensors, circuits, and actuators enabling a new class of intelligent soft robots. The goal is to create a soft robotic manipulator that can autonomously recognize and sort objects by their physical characteristics using only these advanced material components, without requiring...