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

由于关键任务细节的高度不确定性，例如要操纵的对象的形状或大小或操作环境，许多任务很难实现自动化。即使有可能设计一个机器人系统来完成这样的任务，所产生的系统也可能过于昂贵和/或缺乏工业使用所需的健壮性。例如，人工心脏瓣膜的缝合过程对于生物医药行业来说仍然是一项劳动密集型的工作，因为操作环境的可变性和心脏瓣膜的形状灵活性到目前为止阻碍了经济的自动化解决方案的设计。其他例子可以在许多行业找到，包括半导体制造、农业和医疗保健。工程研究中心人类交互技术规划补助金(HIT)支持在这些情况下建立基础研究能力以推进机械系统设计和控制的初步努力。这将增强行业？S开发下一代强健技术的能力，导致新型工程系统的性能提高，制造和生产、农业、医疗保健和增强技术的改进。规划活动将建立地理上分散的合作伙伴关系和拟议的ERC的战略计划草案。这将使该团队能够协同工作，加快人类互动技术(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。创新的教育和推广计划将为教职员工和行业联合教授的低级本科生创建一个跨学科的研究型在线课程，并启动一个联合工程学博士项目，以指导有才华的未被充分代表的学生和残疾人继续攻读博士学位。这一工程研究中心规划赠款支持为建立一个融合的人类交互技术跨学科中心(HIT)建立能力的初步努力，以解释工程系统的复杂运动-环境相互作用和不确定性，这两个关键焦点在现有的建模和设计方法中没有完全捕捉到。拟议的基础研究与未来NSF投资的十大想法之一--人类-技术前沿的未来工作--密切相关。规划赠款的主要目标与团队建设、应对当前挑战以及通过召集的团队举行一些一对一和在线会议来评估成功活动有关。规划活动的成功完成将使该小组能够着手创建一个综合的多样化的研究-教育-创新框架，以便更好地了解未来在人-技术前沿的工作。拟议中的HIT研究预计将成为工程系统稳健建模、设计和控制的通用工具，能够适应环境中的不确定性，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。HIT中心将作为研究奖学金的典范，并催化加州州立大学、富勒顿大学和伊利诺伊州立大学？S在建设研究能力方面的转变，与合作机构的使命和长期目标相适应，同时在解决问题方面提供独特的视角，并鼓励加州大学、欧文大学和德克萨斯农工大学采取多样化的研究、教育和劳动力发展道路。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智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.