Phase II IUCRC University of Minnesota: Center for Robots and Sensors for the Human Well-being

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

The NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Robots and Sensors for Human Well-Being (ROSE-HUB) Phase II will play a leadership role in nurturing and accelerating the deployment of robotics and intelligent sensor technologies in a wide range of application domains key to the national economy, e.g., transportation, energy, logistics, manufacturing, and infrastructure and the well-being of the society, e.g., in healthcare. The ROSE-HUB center will facilitate center university researchers to work with partners from industry, government, other universities, and non-profit organizations to seek solutions to critical real-world challenges. The ROSE-HUB center at the University of Minnesota will build on recent AI/Machine learning breakthroughs to develop systems and robots with embedded sensors to exhibit enhanced au-tonomy and intelligence. Particularly, it will focus on large scale data generation in the domains of agriculture (for maximizing yield and protecting the environment), medical (for exploring mental disorders and independent living), construction (for digitizing and assess work progress), and innovative UAV robot designs exhibiting unique mobility and energy consumption characteristics. The project is ready to catalyze bold ideas to propel the nation to new technological advance-ments in the aforementioned application domains. Center research will focus on applications including physical/mental health, robots and sensor systems to assist humans, innovative robot designs for monitoring and data collection, precision agriculture, digitization of construction processes, intelligent transportation systems, etc. Re-search will impact: a) industrial members by inserting research into product pipelines, b) re-searchers by exploring new ideas and application domains, c) students by providing hands-on experience and future employment potential, and d) academic curricula. Additionally, annual technology days will attract middle school students from underrepresented groups to engineer-ing, and outreach programs to local K-16 institutions will encourage pursuit of engineering educa-tion. The project will create hardware and software and collect experimental data from fixed and mo-bile robots, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and sensors. A database for data management and dissemination will be established. The software components include: (i) system framework software (e.g., low-level software that operates electro-mechanical systems, i.e., robots, UAVs, etc.), (ii) software for planning, control, sensing, and learning algorithms, (iii) software for demon-stration testbeds and prototypes. The data retention period is five years after the conclusion of the award. The data will be released as it becomes available to the http://rosehubiucrc.github.io site. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.