Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Human Interactive Technologies (HIT)

规划资助：人机交互技术工程研究中心（HIT）

• 批准号: 1936999
• 负责人: Nina Robson
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: CSU Fullerton Auxiliary Services Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1936999&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

Many tasks are difficult to automate due to high levels of uncertainty in key task details, such as the shape or size of an object to be manipulated or the operating environment. Even when it is possible to design a robotic system to complete such a task, the resulting system can be too costly and/or lack the robustness required for industrial use. For example, the sewing process of artificial heart valves remains a labor-intensive endeavor for the biomedical industry because variability in the operating environment and shape flexibility of the heart valve has thus far prevented the design of an economical automated solution. Other examples can be found in numerous industries, including semiconductor manufacturing, agriculture and healthcare. This Engineering Research Center Planning Grant on Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) supports preliminary efforts to build the capacity for fundamental research to advance mechanical systems design and control in these situations. This will increase industry?s ability to develop next-generation robust technologies, leading to novel engineered systems with increased performance, improvements in manufacturing and production, agriculture, healthcare and augmenting technologies The planning activities will build the geographically dispersed partnerships and a strategic plan draft for the proposed ERC. This will allow the team to work in synergy to accelerate transfer of Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) advances in knowledge, technology and systems to impact key sectors of industry and professional engineering practices as well as academic curricula. Innovative educational and outreach programs will create a cross-disciplinary research-oriented online course for lower division undergraduates taught jointly by faculty and industry, as well as initiate a joint Engineering PhD program, to mentor talented underrepresented students and persons with disabilities to continue for PhD degrees. This Engineering Research Center Planning Grant supports preliminary efforts to build capacity for the establishment of a convergent interdisciplinary center on Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) to explain complex motion of engineered systems-environment interaction and uncertainty, two critical foci not fully captured in existing modeling and design methodologies. The proposed basic research strongly correlates to one of the Ten Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment, The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier. The main goals of the planning grant are related to team building, addressing current challenges and assessing success activities through a number of one-on-one and online meetings of the assembled team. The successful completion of the planning activities will allow the team to go forward in the creation of an integrated diverse convergent research-education-innovation framework that will yield a better understanding of the future work at the human-technology frontier. The proposed HIT research is expected to be a general tool for the robust modeling, design and control of engineered systems with the ability to accommodate uncertainties across environments, from novel robotic technologies that can collaborate with humans to better understanding and predicting changes within living systems. The HIT center will serve as a model for research scholarship and catalyze California State University, Fullerton and Illinois State University?s transformation in building research capacity, commensurate with the collaborating institutions missions and long-term goals, while at the same time offer unique perspectives in solving problems and encourage diverse research, educational and workforce development paths at University of California, Irvine and Texas A&M University.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.

由于关键任务细节（如要操作的对象的形状或大小或操作环境）的高度不确定性，许多任务难以自动化。即使有可能设计一个机器人系统来完成这样的任务，最终的系统也可能过于昂贵和/或缺乏工业使用所需的鲁棒性。例如，人工心脏瓣膜的缝制过程仍然是生物医学行业的一项劳动密集型工作，因为操作环境的变化和心脏瓣膜形状的灵活性迄今为止阻碍了经济自动化解决方案的设计。其他例子可以在许多行业中找到，包括半导体制造、农业和医疗保健。这项人机交互技术工程研究中心计划拨款支持基础研究能力建设的初步努力，以推进这些情况下的机械系统设计和控制。这会增加工业吗？规划活动将为拟议的ERC建立地理上分散的合作伙伴关系和战略计划草案。这将使团队协同工作，加速人类互动技术（HIT）在知识、技术和系统方面的进步，以影响工业和专业工程实践以及学术课程的关键部门。创新的教育和推广项目将为低年级本科生创建一个跨学科的研究型在线课程，由教师和企业联合授课，并启动一个联合工程博士项目，以指导有才华的弱势学生和残疾人继续攻读博士学位。这项工程研究中心规划拨款支持初步努力，以建立一个人类交互技术（HIT）的融合跨学科中心，以解释工程系统的复杂运动——环境交互和不确定性，这两个关键的焦点在现有的建模和设计方法中没有完全被捕获。拟议的基础研究与美国国家科学基金会未来投资的十大理念之一“人类技术前沿工作的未来”密切相关。规划奖助金的主要目标是与团队建设、解决当前的挑战和评估成功的活动有关，通过召集团队进行一对一和在线会议。规划活动的成功完成将使团队能够在创建一个综合多样的融合研究-教育-创新框架方面继续前进，这将更好地理解人类技术前沿的未来工作。拟议的HIT研究有望成为工程系统鲁棒建模、设计和控制的通用工具，具有适应各种环境不确定性的能力，从可以与人类合作的新型机器人技术到更好地理解和预测生命系统内的变化。哈工大中心将成为研究奖学金的典范，并促进加州州立大学、富勒顿大学和伊利诺伊州立大学的发展。加州大学尔湾分校和德克萨斯农工大学将为合作院校的使命和长期目标提供独特的解决问题的视角，并鼓励不同的研究、教育和劳动力发展路径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。