Project Grant 2426470

This $140,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to revolutionize teleoperation technology for dexterous in-hand manipulation in human-robot collaboration. The primary research objectives are to: 1) develop a learning-based robot control policy to interpret human commands using end-effect-based task features, 2) create a safety-aware, multi-modal perception system to optimize sensory inputs for intuitive and safe operation, and 3) integrate control and feedback mechanisms to provide precise and intuitive bi-directional interactions between the operator and robot, reducing latency and enhancing task performance. The research utilizes advanced machine learning, sensor fusion, and human-computer interaction techniques to address challenges in physical robot-object interactions and enable more efficient and safer critical operations in sectors like healthcare, disaster response, exploration, and manufacturing. The University of Colorado-Denver is the primary awardee for this 2-year project, which runs from September 2024 to August 2026.