NRI: FND: Multi-Manipulator Extensible Robotic Platforms

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

For a long time, robotics has emphasized "dangerous, dirty, or dull" tasks. This project aims to make skilled experts more productive rather than automate lower skilled mass-manufacturing tasks. The project will enable automation of custom, specialized, and niche tasks conducted collaboratively by domain experts together with robots. Laboratory scientists rely on precise and accurate manipulation of samples for the gathering of data. This project will develop co-botic automation tools that enable scientific exploration. These tools will include open-source motion platforms which can be customized for different applications, novel end effectors which can move objects without touching them, and software programming environments that can be used for authoring workflows that will be conducted with these tools. These tools allow scientists to delegate the precise manipulation to a robot without loss of the ability to explore and iteratively develop experiments and workflows. This research will broaden and diversify access to automation technology by providing low-cost and accessible infrastructure that is relevant to many scientific domains. The research will establish tools for co-botic workflows which end-users can customize for application specific tasks. It will contribute novel end-effectors for ultrasonic manipulation, including for applications such as manipulating trapped powders and liquids. It will contribute new design patterns for motion platforms which automatically change between multiple end-effectors. These motion platforms will be customizable, with application experts able to produce them in the field without additional expertise in robotics. It will contribute software tools for controlling these end-effectors and motion platforms developed from an end-user perspective, providing abstractions that allow domain experts to define and execute collaborative robotic workflows. This work will substantially advance research efforts in robotics and human-machine interaction by developing contactless manipulation, customizable co-bots, and iterative design of automated workflows. 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.