| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | August 5, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 5, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1928654 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Alexandra Medina-Borja
amedinab@nsf.gov (703)292-7557 CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $2,500,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $2,500,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
360 HUNTINGTON AVE BOSTON MA US 02115-5005 (617)373-5600 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
360 Huntington Ave Boston MA US 02115-5005 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | FW-HTF Futr Wrk Hum-Tech Frntr |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
This Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) project will investigate the appropriate development and deployment of collaborative robots to transform profitability, productivity, safety, sustainability, and worker quality of life in the seafood processing industry, where harsh conditions and demanding and dangerous tasks challenge the capabilities of humans and robots alike. The result will be designs, tools, methods, and datasets to facilitate seamless human-robot collaboration. Soft robot manipulators will augment the safe and reliable handling of slippery, scaly, and flexible objects. Emerging capabilities in artificial intelligence will assist in identifying and inspecting varieties of fish and shellfish. Critical to the project is understanding how best to allocate specific tasks among robot and human workers, integrating a complex set of desired outcomes, across scales of individual workers, independent businesses, domestic and migrant labor markets, national economic sectors, and global trade, while respecting environmental and ethical constraints. Associated educational and outreach programs will empower engineers, design experts, and social scientists how to address challenges at the convergence of robotics and manipulation, artificial intelligence, human-robot collaboration, ethics, and labor economics. Training programs will develop a new cadre of learners and researchers in data, technology and human literacies. In 2017, the US imported record amounts of seafood, corresponding to a trade deficit of more than $17 billion. Due to low domestic unemployment and obstacles to employing migrant labor, the US seafood processing industry has been unable to meet US consumer demand. This project will advance US leadership in a globally competitive and domestically underserved industry, while simultaneously advancing understanding of key scientific, engineering, and societal challenges.
The research goals of the project will impact five interconnected and convergent areas, namely (i) collaborative robotics and shared autonomy, (ii) interaction design with data visualizations, (iii) labor economics in seafood industry, (iv) ethics of autonomy in the workplace, (v) workforce training and new skills learning. To address shortcomings of today?s human-robot co-worker teams, the research plan aims to dramatically enhance productivity in complex environments, while paying specific attention to factors affecting user acceptability. The team will emphasize the integration of robotic systems in the existing socio-technical context -- existing machinery and tools and existing human work practices, including formal and informal modalities ? to develop an approach of ambient and distributed robotics, rather than individual robot interventions. The research plan develops a constellation of design requirements for systems through user-centered design and ideation activities, iteratively advancing model-based and data-driven methods, validating designs through usability studies, and assessing the societal and economic impact of technologies to impact the future of work. The project incorporates and builds upon improvisation in the everyday seafood processing plant workplace, to design and validate robot co-worker competencies. Complementing the technological objectives, the project includes human-subject studies to address ethical issues raised by the adoption of robotics in the workplace. Addressing these issues -- which include challenges specific to a labor context with immigrant labor, low wages, and harsh working conditions -- is essential to successful robotics integration and adoption. Finally, the project will evaluate the economic impact of automation on both workers and companies in this emerging socio-technological landscape to understand both the costs and the benefits of adopting new technologies that will shape the future workplace.
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
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.
This project investigated the appropriate development and deployment of collaborative robots to transform profitability, productivity, safety, sustainability, and worker quality of life in the seafood processing industry. We introduced designs, tools, methods, and datasets to facilitate seamless human-robot collaboration in harsh, regulated, and dynamic environments. Critical to the project was understanding how best to allocate specific tasks among robot and human workers, integrating a complex set of desired outcomes, across scales of individual workers, independent businesses, domestic and migrant labor markets, national economic sectors, and global trade, while respecting environmental and ethical constraints. In 2022, the US imported record amounts of seafood, corresponding to a trade deficit of more than $20 billion. This project was a disciplined approach to bridge this gap to provide healthy and affordable food options to Americans.
The project developed systems, methods and frameworks to advance the science of safe human-robot collaboration in three broad applications. First, the common task of large objects handover has been studied with a focus on ergonomics and worker safety. Second, novel robot grippers have been developed that are capable of safely manipulating soft, deformable, and inherently dynamic objects such as seafood products. Last, a supervised autonomy framework has been established and demonstrated to enable remote workers to complete physical tasks in work settings. Novel human-robot interaction modes, and ethical deployment frameworks have also been considered. Ethics tools and approaches developed in this project that applied broadly to the integration of AI in human-AI hybrid systems were presented to a wide-range of audiences.
Furthermore, the project studies the economic impact of disruptive events, such as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, on seafood industry. Sepcial consideration was given to business strategies to adopt new technologies to address workforce shortages. Over the course of the project timeline, the team of investigators have conducted more than 200 discovery interviews and site visits to seafood processors to better understand the business needs and challenges.
Today, there is no one scientist, engineer or technologist that can address the challenges in human-robot collaboration in dynamic and challenging work settings. This project trained more than 100 students that are cognizant to challenges facing the seafood industry and gained unique expertise in interdisciplinary fields. The project team designed and disseminated an online learning module available at Northeastern University's website towards upskilling workers in seafood and other relevant manufacturing industries.
In summary, this project was aimed at addressing the challenges associated with seamless human-robot collaboration in shared workspaces. The project outcomes will have broader impacts well-beyond the seafood processing. The products resulting from this project on manipulation of deformable objects, labor economics, ethics approaches, and workforce development will scale to relevant manufacturing processes including plastics, textiles, apparel, packaging, and beyond.
Last Modified: 03/12/2025
Modified by: Taskin Padir
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
