Project Details
Description
This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) grant supports research that will contribute new knowledge related to a manufacturing process, promoting the progress of science, and advancing national prosperity. Robot manipulators are known for high precision and repeatability. They have been widely used in well-defined and fully automated industrial settings. However, ad-hoc, highly uncertain, and complex manipulation tasks still require on-site presence and assistance from human crew. Many such tasks present hazardous and challenging environments, such as in the case of factory operations during a pandemic. This project aims to empower the workforce by enabling their versatile and dexterous capabilities for remotely operated manipulation tasks. A novel model-mediated telemanipulation framework will be developed for the workforce, to extend their physical reach, their hands-on manipulation dexterity, and their situational awareness intelligence, from local to a remote site. These advanced telemanipulation technologies will have substantial impact on society and the economy, helping facilitate safe manufacturing working environments for the workforce. From an educational perspective, this project promotes diversity in engineering education by inspiring and preparing students in under-served communities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers at the high school and college levels.This project seeks to develop enhanced teleoperation methods to bridge the current gaps of using grasped tools in remotely operated manipulation tasks, such as, fastening a screw with a grasped screwdriver. The key research objective of this project is to investigate tool grasping compliance and stability in force-controlled manufacturing tasks and explore its usage in model-mediated telemanipulation. First, a framework is developed for estimating tool grasping compliance matrices of underactuated robotic hands using combined feedback from hand sensors (joint angles and proprioception) and wrist-mounted force and torque sensors. Then, the estimated compliance is used to infer grasping status and stability and to develop novel force control strategies. Finally, the tool grasping information is incorporated in model-mediated telemanipulation to design and implement a novel grasping-informed virtual fixture haptic assistance. Thereby, a complete solution for user-driven remotely operated manipulation tasks can be delivered.This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).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.
Status | Active |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/06/22 → 31/05/25 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation
Fingerprint
Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.