| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 9, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 13, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1637656 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Bruce Kramer
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $977,778.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,003,778.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $10,000.00 FY 2018 = $8,000.00 FY 2019 = $8,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1960 KENNY RD COLUMBUS OH US 43210-1016 (614)688-8735 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
201 west 19th ave., Room N350R Columbus OH US 43210-1226 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | NRI-National Robotics Initiati |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Co-robots are robotic devices that work in collaboration with human partners. The current solutions for human-safe co-robots fail to offer the safety required in many manufacturing tasks. The shape morphing robotic manipulators are designed to be inherently safe by making the links flexible during robot motion. The upper and lower arms of the manipulators can change their stiffness in real-time by simple smart material actuators. The arms are relatively stiff at low speeds for maximum performance and highly flexible at high speeds for maximum safety. When a collision occurs, the flexible link deflects to limit the impact to the human operator. At low speeds, the flexible link is morphed to the high stiffness mode for maximum positioning accuracy. This research will significantly improve the design of safe co-robotic systems, which can benefit numerous fields, including the health care, automotive, construction and military sectors. It will help to reduce injuries in manufacturing industries and home/hospital nursing and improve efficiency of housekeeping.
Safety concerns with industrial robots present a serious technical barrier to practical co-robot applications. To address these safety challenges, this research offers a comprehensive solution by integrating complementary expertise in three areas: (i) shape morphing and design optimization of compliant mechanisms, (ii) electrically-controlled stiffness modulation with smart materials and (iii) performance maximization by optimal motion control. The shape morphing robotic manipulators can adapt their stiffness to the traveling speed by morphing their shape. They are designed for safe operation while maintaining their performance via shape morphing control and trajectory motion control. The shape morphing robotic manipulator offers several advantages over existing techniques in co-robots. It has the potential to create a paradigm shift towards "safe by design, performance by control" for human-safe co-robots.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The goal of this award is to develop an integrated design and control framework of variable stiffness robots for enhancing safety in human-robot collaborations while maintaining high performance in industrial manufacturing. In terms of intellectual merits, the project team have produced (1) novel design concepts of variable stiffness robotic arms including: shape morphing of flat beams, smart clamp jamming, rotating beams and layer jamming structures, (2) an experimentally verified design framework of compliant robotic links that incorporates advanced theoretical models such as pseudo-rigid-body models for dynamic analysis of compliant mechanisms, chained composite models for smart actuators and specific guidelines of trading-off safety and performance via tunable stiffness, (3) a predictive simulation platform for physical human-robot interactions that is supported by dynamics of compliant robots, an mechanical impact contact model, and human head dynamics, (4) practical applications of these concepts and theoretical models of structures to design of soft robot including robot arms, robotic grippers and continuum robots with a variable stiffness. Some of these robots achieve a very high ratio of stiffness variation that benefits numerous applications in manufacturing and others. This high stiffness ratio is critical to reduce the impact force during human-robot interactions while maintaining a high performance.
In terms of broader impacts, the design models and tools developed in this award will significantly extend our ability to design and control variable stiffness robots that play a vital role in many applications ranging from manufacturing to medicine, where both safety and performance criteria are to be met. These design tools and models have been disseminated to the broader research community via distribution of computer codes, simulation model parameters through journal article publications, patens, organizing/participating conference workshops as well as presenting at international and national conferences and giving invited talks to many academic institutions. We have also made significant efforts to commercialize some research outcomes. As a lineage of this project, a new project sponsored by NSF’s Partnership for Innovation program has been awarded to PI to commercialize the variable stiffness robotic gripper concept produced in this award. Moreover, through supplemental support, several undergraduate research assistants have been supported to assist PIs and graduate students on the research tasks. To outreach K-12 students, the project team have engaged at least five high school students in the research project. One high student accomplished a senior capstone research project under PI’s supervision.
Last Modified: 10/26/2020
Modified by: Hai-Jun Su
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