Many tasks are difficult to automate due to high levels of uncertainty in key task details, such as the shape or size of an object to be manipulated or the operating environment. Even when it is possible to design a robotic system to complete such a task, the resulting system can be too costly and/or lack the robustness required for industrial use. For example, the sewing process of artificial heart valves remains a labor-intensive endeavor for the biomedical industry because variability in the operating environment and shape flexibility of the heart valve has thus far prevented the design of an economical automated solution. Other examples can be found in numerous industries, including semiconductor manufacturing, agriculture and healthcare. This Engineering Research Center Planning Grant on Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) supports preliminary efforts to build the capacity for fundamental research to advance mechanical systems design and control in these situations. This will increase industry?s ability to develop next-generation robust technologies, leading to novel engineered systems with increased performance, improvements in manufacturing and production, agriculture, healthcare and augmenting technologies The planning activities will build the geographically dispersed partnerships and a strategic plan draft for the proposed ERC. This will allow the team to work in synergy to accelerate transfer of Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) advances in knowledge, technology and systems to impact key sectors of industry and professional engineering practices as well as academic curricula. Innovative educational and outreach programs will create a cross-disciplinary research-oriented online course for lower division undergraduates taught jointly by faculty and industry, as well as initiate a joint Engineering PhD program, to mentor talented underrepresented students and persons with disabilities to continue for PhD degrees.
This Engineering Research Center Planning Grant supports preliminary efforts to build capacity for the establishment of a convergent interdisciplinary center on Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) to explain complex motion of engineered systems-environment interaction and uncertainty, two critical foci not fully captured in existing modeling and design methodologies. The proposed basic research strongly correlates to one of the Ten Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment, The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier. The main goals of the planning grant are related to team building, addressing current challenges and assessing success activities through a number of one-on-one and online meetings of the assembled team. The successful completion of the planning activities will allow the team to go forward in the creation of an integrated diverse convergent research-education-innovation framework that will yield a better understanding of the future work at the human-technology frontier. The proposed HIT research is expected to be a general tool for the robust modeling, design and control of engineered systems with the ability to accommodate uncertainties across environments, from novel robotic technologies that can collaborate with humans to better understanding and predicting changes within living systems. The HIT center will serve as a model for research scholarship and catalyze California State University, Fullerton and Illinois State University?s transformation in building research capacity, commensurate with the collaborating institutions missions and long-term goals, while at the same time offer unique perspectives in solving problems and encourage diverse research, educational and workforce development paths at University of California, Irvine and Texas A&M University.
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.
