Project Grant 2542181

Federal Grant Award Summary

Case Western Reserve University's Office of Research Administration is receiving a $420,082 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Computing and Communication Foundations under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070), effective October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2031. This CAREER award supports research and education initiatives focused on developing real-time, closed-loop human-robot interaction frameworks that enable robots to sense, interpret, and respond to human emotional states during social interactions. The research centers on creating computational models that infer emotional states from multimodal signals—including heart rate, respiratory rate, speech prosody, facial thermal patterns, and posture—and designing supportive robot behaviors through therapist-guided verbal responses, gesture libraries, and gentle touch capabilities using miniature humanoid and industrial robots.

The project addresses critical gaps in mental health care access by developing robotic systems capable of recognizing signs of emotional distress and providing real-time supportive responses through multimodal communication channels. Beyond the core research deliverables, the award integrates education and workforce development through interdisciplinary robotics programs engaging students across engineering, arts, humanities, and social sciences, supplemented by K-12 workshops, internships, and public demonstrations. The research is being conducted in Cleveland, Ohio, at Case Western Reserve University in affiliation with University Hospitals of Cleveland.