| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 30, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 30, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1739452 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Sylvia Spengler
sspengle@nsf.gov (703)292-7347 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,250,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,250,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3100 MARINE ST Boulder CO US 80309-0001 (303)492-6221 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
3100 Marine Street, Room 479 Boulder CO US 80303-1058 |
| 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): |
Info Integration & Informatics, CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| 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): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The goal of this research is to gain a fundamental understanding of the integrated actuation, embedded sensing, reactive control, and distributed control needs of a cyber-physical, synthetic, distributed sensing, soft and modular tissue (sTISSUE). Realizing this cyber-physical, physiological testbed will enable surgically relevant tasks, procedures, and devices to be much more refined ahead of animal testing, which can be dramatically reduced with such high-fidelity simulators. Furthermore, such simulators could open an entirely new approach to medical resident training that could not only improve surgical performance skills, but also establish a new paradigm in patient-specific surgical practice before the actual procedure. The proposed strategy will also harness the excitement surrounding autonomous systems, robotic control, and embedded sensing, and leverage it with the investigators' infrastructure for education innovation and outreach to provide new, inspirational educational experiences for students.
This research program will formulate the techniques required for a synthetic tissue to autonomously sense and react to external stimuli, thereby replicating smooth muscle's sense and actuation capability. In essence, an autonomous tissue will be created that simulates in vivo behavior, while maintaining scalability and modularity. The intellectual merit of this research lies in 1) addressing current shortcomings in embedded sensing and actuation that ensure modularity and distributed control, 2) modeling the dynamics of, and creating global and distributed control strategies that account for, the unconventional in vivo environment requirements, and 3) enabling a paradigm-altering platform that will allow technology developers to both quickly and reliably apply this sTISSUE to numerous applications. More broadly, this research will establish a crucial body of knowledge needed for the design of synthetic tissue materials that integrate sensing, actuation, computation, and control. While the proposed approach includes the goal to transition the fundamental research into a gastrointestinal simulator, numerous other applications in the field of medicine and co-robotics exist. Finally, the proposed research in modularity and scalability design can broadly impact a number of other areas that would benefit from the developed novel methodologies in integrated sensing, actuation, computation and control.
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 overarching goal of this research was to gain a fundamental understanding of the integrated actuation, embedded sensing, reactive control, and distributed control needs of a cyber-physical, synthetic, distributed sensing, soft and modular tissue (sTISSUE). Realizing this cyber-physical, physiological testbed is a step toward enabling surgically relevant tasks, procedures, and devices to be much more refined ahead of animal testing, which can be dramatically reduced with such high-fidelity simulators. Furthermore, such simulators could open an entirely new approach to medical resident training that could not only improve surgical performance skills, but also establish a new paradigm in patient-specific surgical practice before the actual procedure. The proposed strategy was also developed to harness the excitement surrounding autonomous systems, robotic control, and embedded sensing, and leverage it with the investigators' infrastructure for education innovation and outreach to provide new, inspirational educational experiences for students.
Specifically, the main project research objectives were to: 1) create a scalable (both multi-sectional modularity and size scalability), integrated actuation mechanism in the sTISSUE, 2) formulate the intrinsic dynamics of the sTISSUE for control synthesis, 3) enable global, bio-inspired, dynamic shape control, and 4) integrate distributed control laws based on global control specifications. Three educational objectives included: 1) incorporation of these cyber-physical topics on distributed sensing, control, and actuation into undergraduate and graduate courses, including education/industry collaborations via industry-sponsored student design projects; 2) inclusion of undergraduate researchers as collaborative partners on original research; and 3) targeted student professional development.
We have established a modular and scalable actuation mechanism in the sTISSUE using high-bandwidth Hydraulically AmplifiedSelf-healing ELectrostatic (HASEL) actuators. We have experimentally tested the actuator system to understand the dynamic performance of the system to create a control platform for feedback control purposes including a global, bio-inspired, dynamic shape control approach. We have successfully investigated fundamental sensing and control principles for HASEL actuators and have established a novel magnetic sensing approach to provide consistent feedback with high voltage HASEL actuators. We have used sensor feedback to integrate distributed control laws based on global control specifications. Finally, we have transition the basic research into tangible practice through large scale fabrication, integration and testing methods using this fundamental modular/scalable approach.
The fundamental knowledge established in this project has impacted technological applications and is being transitioned to industry.
Last Modified: 11/29/2022
Modified by: Mark E Rentschler
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