RII Track-1: Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for Enhanced Robotics and Structures

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The manufacturing industry is being redefined in recent years due to advances in 3D printing technologies and their wide use in implementing custom designs economically and producing smart devices that can provide useful data feedback to improve performance across numerous applications. The Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for Enhanced Robotics and Structures (KAMPERS) project aims to develop new materials for use in 3D printing, embed built-in electronic functions and sensors, including power sources and displays in 3D printed objects, and study human-machine interactions to improve machine learning paradigms. The project will produce compact, light-weight components that will be embedded in robots, prosthetics, and other consumer products. The project team will use the data from user feedback to improve performance of the machines used in advanced manufacturing, human-assistive robotic systems, and digital health monitoring products. During the five years of this project, a diverse group of researchers and students from eight academic institutions in Kentucky, including an Historically Black College or University (HBCU) and a community college, will participate in the research and educational activities. This project will forge partnerships with industries and other stakeholders and prepare a well-trained workforce capable of meeting the needs of advanced manufacturing sectors in Kentucky and beyond.The Kentucky EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-1 project, KAMPERS, will develop materials for flexible electronics, produce 3D printed structures, and integrate sensing and other electronic functions into these structural elements to advance human-machine interfaces. A multidisciplinary team of engineers, materials chemists and physicists, and synthetic biologists from eight academic institutions in Kentucky will work together in developing new materials for 3D printing, power storage technologies, sophisticated sensing methods, and high-throughput manufacturing tools. By embedding power storage, logic, and displays and sensing capabilities in the fabricated objects, the team will develop structurally enhanced robots and other products with potential applications. KAMPERS researchers will gather data from user feedback to explore human-machine interfaces, generate adaptive software that learns from user input, and, hence, improve performance in an iterative manner. KAMPERS will engage a diverse group of about 40 researchers at the faculty level including eight new faculty hires and an average of five postdocs and 28 graduate students per year and reach up to 850 undergraduates over five years through research experiences, internships, courses, and mentoring.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.