Project Grant 2525502
- This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $350,000 to the University of Illinois to develop a hybrid aerial-hexapod robot capable of autonomous roof inspection. The project aims to address safety, efficiency, and cost challenges in the roof inspection industry by creating a robotic platform that combines the mobility of drones with the terrain adaptability of legged robots. The resulting system will enable detailed roof inspections...
- This $325,497 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research to enable insect-scale legged robots with the capability to climb on inverted surfaces and grasp irregularly shaped objects. The key products and services to be delivered through this collaborative research project include: Investigation of fundamental principles of adhesion and lubrication to develop new adhesion mechanisms for insect-scale robots Design of new climbing...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $421,935 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an insect-scale quadrupedal robot with advanced climbing and grasping capabilities. The key objectives of this 3-year project, starting January 1, 2025, are to: (1) develop analytical models of adhesion and lubrication principles to enable inverted and vertical climbing with feedback control; and (2) demonstrate...
- This $641,775 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund research at Clemson University from September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2028. The project investigates novel robot locomotion capabilities using only fast, unbalanced rotors for actuation. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated that this approach can enable robots to roll, jump, crawl, climb, swim, and fly. The research aims to develop a framework for understanding the...
- This $444,835 federal Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports collaborative research to develop a bio-inspired robot capable of reliably traversing challenging wet, flowable substrates at water-land interfaces, such as wetlands and tidal zones. The research aims to create a robot that can sense and adapt to complex terrain conditions, similar to how amphibious animals like mudskippers move across these environments. The outcomes are...
- This $299,328 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will fund research by Lehigh University to advance the capabilities of aerial robots. The project aims to enable aerial manipulation and transportation of flexible objects like cables, rods, hoses, and plastic sheets, which present unique challenges compared to the current aerial robotic systems primarily limited to rigid object manipulation....
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $323,345 Project Grant under its Integrative Activities (CFDA 47.083) program to the University of New Haven. The grant supports the acquisition of a legged robotic platform to conduct research and education on risk-aware automated exploration of unknown hazardous environments, with applications for automated search and rescue operations. The research will explore techniques such as real-time object dynamics estimation, natural language...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) project grant under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to develop the world's smallest functional bipedal robot, multi-legged robot, and wheeled robot, each approximately 100 times smaller than the current state-of-the-art. The $854,461 award to Carnegie Mellon University, spanning from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2027, will establish scaling laws to understand how actuation, joint losses, and contact properties change at smaller scales. This...
- This $704,908 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CFDA 47.041 Engineering program) to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will support fundamental research to enable tiny aerial robots weighing less than 100 grams to navigate through cluttered surroundings in the presence of smoke, darkness, dust, fog, and snow. The research will develop sound-based sensing capabilities for these robots to overcome visual...
- This $508,560 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports the development of self-propelling robots capable of navigating and monitoring large-scale industrial granular systems. The research aims to provide critical data and inform predictive models that can enhance the energy efficiency, reduce waste, and improve the safety of chemical, agricultural, and mining operations involving granular materials. The project, awarded to the...
This Project Grant award, valued at $350,000 and funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), supports the development of a hybrid aerial-hexapod robot capable of conducting autonomous and detailed roof inspections. The project aims to address safety, efficiency, and cost challenges in the roof inspection industry by equipping aerial robots with legged mobility and advanced perception capabilities. The resulting robot will be able to navigate multi-layered and irregular roof structures, integrating visual, tactile, and LiDAR data to detect structural anomalies, surface degradation, and moisture intrusion. The research will also offer educational and outreach opportunities, including STEM workshops for K-12 students and teachers, as well as open-access datasets for robotics and AI education. The project is being carried out by Syracuse University, a private research university in New York, and is scheduled for completion by September 30, 2028.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $350.0k | 8/18/25 |