The National Science Foundation Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation awarded North Carolina State University a $317,133 Project Grant under the Engineering (CFDA 47.041) federal grant program. The grant funds research on adaptive, rapid, and multifunctional soft robots with reconfigurable shapes and motions enabled by tunable elastic instabilities. Specifically, North Carolina State University will conduct collaborative research to develop soft robotic technologies capable...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award in the amount of $300,150 supports collaborative research aimed at designing and optimizing topological metamaterials with programmable levels of softness and rigidity. The research will investigate the relationship between the geometric features of these materials and their emergent topological polarization properties, which enable the materials to manage applied loads through soft and rigid edges. The...
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 $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...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $300,392 to the University of Illinois to conduct collaborative research on the topology of shapes, topology of waves, and their interplay in metamaterials optimization. The research aims to design structures that can program variable levels of material softness and rigidity, enabling them to intelligently manage loads from the environment. Key focus areas include investigating the...
This three-year project grant of $409,707 from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research at Colorado State University to develop adaptive, rapid, and multifunctional soft robots enabled by tunable elastic instabilities. The goal is to create soft robotic devices with reconfigurable shapes and motions. The Engineering program aims to improve engineering research and education quality to foster innovation and economic strength. This award directly...
This $330,001 federal Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports a research project at Clark University on the physical principles governing the dynamics of soft, undulating filaments in granular environments. Key objectives include: Constructing prototype soft robots that can navigate through complex sediment beds, enabled by a deeper understanding of burrowing mechanics Developing theoretical models to capture the shape, speed, and...
This $693,800 Project Grant award, made by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), supports the development of a fully automated robotic factory called EVOFAB. The EVOFAB system will design, fabricate, and test novel soft actuators powered by pressurized air, which have applications in areas like food handling, wearable devices, and surgical tools. The project aims to embed intelligent design capabilities using high-fidelity simulations, automated...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation awarded a $503,167 Project Grant to the University of Southern California (USC) for the project titled "CAREER: EFFECTIVE CONTINUUM MODELING OF MECHANISM-BASED METAMATERIALS". Under this 5-year award, effective from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2028, USC will conduct fundamental research to develop modeling tools for predicting the mechanical behavior of morphing metamaterials. Metamaterials...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) provides $334,027 to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from February 2021 through January 2024. The funding supports research into self-adaptive electromechanical metamaterials under the NSF's Engineering (CFDA 47.041) program. The goal of this program is to improve engineering research and education to foster innovation and strengthen the national economy. Specifically, the award will allow research into...