Bilge Mutlu (People and Robots Lab) will support Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND), an NSF-funded collaboration dedicated to improving robot dexterity.
A large multi-institutional collaboration has received $26 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch a new Engineering Research Center (ERC) dedicated to revolutionizing the ability of robots to amplify human labor.
The NSF grant will fund the new center across five years, with the ability to renew for another $26 million for an additional five years. Led by Northwestern University, UW–Madison’ People and Robots Lab Director Bilge Mutlu will support efforts alongside researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University, Florida A&M, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M, and Syracuse University.
Called Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND), the new ERC will transform dexterous robot hands into versatile, easy-to-integrate tools. By developing technologies that enable human-like robotic dexterity, the center aims to create robots capable of intelligent and versatile grasping, fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. These functions will improve robots’ ability to assist humans with manufacturing, caregiving, handling precious or dangerous materials and more.
ERC Director J. Edward Colgate emphasized the impact this work will have across industry, the economy, and the scientific community at large. “Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have created an incredible opportunity to make robot manipulators accessible to small American manufacturers, people with motor impairments and many others who might benefit,” Colgate said. “A huge challenge, however, is what we put at the end of the robot’s arm. Today’s two-jaw grippers are far too limited. HAND’s fundamental research will lead to robots with dexterous and versatile hands, manual skills and intuitive interfaces that anyone can learn to use.”
According to Mutlu, “Robots today can only do simple things like picking things up from here and putting them there, and HAND will change that.” As a part of achieving this goal, UW–Madison’s research will contribute to one of the main “thrusts” of the center that will “develop new interfaces for programming, controlling, teaching, and supervising dexterous robots that domain experts with little expertise in robotics can effectively and easily use.”
The interdisciplinary team will help develop and prepare a diverse workforce for an entirely new field of study focused on dexterous robots and foster a culture that nourishes inclusivity and ensures equitable access to new technologies. Potential outcomes will include increased worker productivity, improved job opportunities, reshoring of manufacturing, reduced supply chain vulnerability, enhanced food safety, improved quality of life and democratization of the benefits of robotics.
Since its founding in 1985, the ERC program has supported convergent research, education and technology translation at U.S. universities. Each ERC unites members from academia, industry and government to produce transformational engineered systems along with engineering graduates who are adept at innovation and primed for leadership in the global economy.
“NSF’s Engineering Research Centers ask big questions in order to catalyze solutions with far-reaching impacts,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “NSF Engineering Research Centers are powerhouses of discovery and innovation, bringing America’s great engineering minds to bear on our toughest challenges. By collaborating with industry and training the workforce of the future, ERCs create an innovation ecosystem that can accelerate engineering innovations, producing tremendous economic and societal benefits for the nation.”