Project Grant 2535275
- The National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded the University of Texas at Austin $360,000 on October 1, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to develop robot safety methods using deep generative modeling. The project replaces hand-crafted safety constraints with learned representations of safe behavior by aggregating expert demonstrations across a wide variety of tasks and operating conditions. The research produces a reusable safety...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation awarded Iowa State University of Science and Technology $312,413 on January 1, 2027, to conduct fundamental research on safety and security in human-robot interactions under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041). The award funds research to understand and defend against adversarial physical interactions between humans and robots, addressing the gap in current human-robot interaction safety research, which...
- This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.070) will support research to establish a framework for designing and implementing safe learning-enabled systems. The $399,965 award to Cornell University, with a period of performance from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2027, aims to develop methods for ensuring the safety of learning-enabled systems, even in complex operating environments,...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded the University of Texas at Austin $320,000 on October 1, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to develop robotic systems that adapt to unexpected failures without requiring retraining. The project, titled "Collaborative Research: Learning In-Context Improvement for Robotic Systems via Training-Time Failure Simulation," addresses the brittleness of current robot controllers by...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded Cornell University $670,000 on April 1, 2026, under the CAREER program (Assistance Listing 47.041, Engineering) to develop mathematical tools for building robust artificial intelligence systems that remain reliable when faced with unexpected data shifts or adversarial attacks. The project advances distributionally robust optimization by using optimal transport theory to construct ambiguity sets...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems award, CFDA 47.041 Engineering, will provide $193,000 from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2027 to New York University (NYU) to develop new theories and methodologies for safe reinforcement learning in domains such as robotics, autonomous driving, and power systems. The key products and services to be delivered under this Project Grant include: 1) Formulating safety measures as general objectives...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Information and Intelligent Systems awarded a $545,980 Project Grant to Princeton University from August 1, 2021 through July 31, 2026 under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070). The grant funds research at Princeton University to develop generalization and safety guarantees for learning-based control of robots. The Computer and Information Science and Engineering program supports investigator-initiated research...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded the University of Washington $360,000 on October 1, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to develop robotic systems that adapt rapidly to failures and environmental changes without full retraining. The research addresses the brittleness of current learned robot controllers—a robot arm tuned to assemble one product cannot adjust when parts change shape, and a legged robot reliable on...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Computer and Network Systems awarded Columbia University $515,235 on August 1, 2026, under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) to develop theoretically grounded methods for safe multi-task learning and control on resource-constrained autonomous systems. The project develops a computationally efficient framework integrating meta-learning, adaptive control, model predictive control, and embedded optimization to...
- This five-year National Science Foundation Project Grant of $1,238,246 will fund research at Carnegie Mellon University toward developing safe autonomous systems. The goal is to enable robots and other autonomous systems to operate safely while interacting closely with humans, as required for applications like next-generation manufacturing infrastructure. The university will develop a new algorithmic framework for assuring safety in autonomous robotic systems. The framework aims to optimize...
The National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded Cornell University $453,440 on October 1, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to develop a robot safety framework that uses deep generative modeling to infer safe behavior from expert demonstrations rather than relying on manually defined safety rules. The project creates a reusable safety filter module that composes with any robot controller to correct unsafe actions before execution, adaptable to settings from assembly lines to assistive devices and conditionable on verbal feedback from human coworkers. The work generates open-source software and benchmark tasks for the research community. Performance occurs in Ithaca, New York, with a period of performance from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2029. Educational activities integrate project themes into graduate and undergraduate robotics courses at Cornell University and the University of Texas at Austin, with undergraduate research mentorship through summer programs. K-12 outreach includes curriculum development with local school districts and partnerships with local science centers and robotics teams in Ithaca and Austin.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $453.4k | 8/13/26 |