REU Site: Robots in the Real World

机器人技术是一个非常多学科的领域，它融合了机械工程、电气工程、计算机科学等领域的思想。机器人专家必须考虑系统的各个方面，从机械设计到规划，以了解与机器人互动的人的需求；因此，对许多本科生来说，成为一名机器人专家所需的广泛技能既具有挑战性，又丰富了这个领域。尽管有这种吸引力，但某些障碍经常干扰大学生参与机器人研究，包括国内机构缺乏机器人基础设施，以及工程领域代表性不足的学生群体面临的挑战。这个本科生研究经验（REU）站点更新项目特别旨在解决上述多样性和包容性主题，并在保留站点过去成功方面的同时改进项目评估。在这个REU网站的本科生将从事积极的研究项目，在广泛的机器人研究领域做出新的发现，从机器人建模到理解人类心理学，因为它适用于与机器人的互动。夏季项目工作将属于俄勒冈州立大学机器人学院和附属机构的领域，所有项目都将集中在机器人研究方面的贡献，包括在现实环境中部署的物理机器人。这些项目包括探索极端海洋环境的自主机器人、远程呈现机器人和下一代社交机器人。REU的学生体验将包括在全国排名最高的研究生机器人项目之一的领先教师的监督下制定和追求机器人研究问题。从历史上看，大约有20名项目参与者共同撰写了同行评审的学术论文，这些论文基于他们的暑期研究，提高了该领域的知识水平。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。

Robotics is an extremely multi-disciplinary field that incorporates ideas from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and beyond. Roboticists must consider aspects of systems from mechanical design to planning to understanding the needs of people who interact with robots; as such, the broad range of skills needed to be a roboticist makes it both a challenging and enriching field for many undergraduates. Despite this appeal, certain obstacles often interfere with undergraduate participation in robotics research, including lack of robotics infrastructure at home institutions and pipeline challenges for groups of students who are underrepresented in engineering. This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site renewal project particularly aims to address the above diversity and inclusion topics and improve program evaluation while preserving past successful aspects of the Site.Undergraduate students at this REU Site will work on active research projects, contributing to new findings in a wide range of robotics research areas, from modeling robots to understanding human psychology as it applies to interactions with robots. The summer project work will fall under the domains of Oregon State University robotics faculty and affiliates, and all projects will focus on robotics research contributions that involve physical robots deployed in real-world settings. These projects involve autonomous robots to explore extreme ocean environments, telepresence robots, and next generation social robots. The REU student experience will involve formulating and pursuing robotics research questions under the supervision of leading faculty in one of the highest-ranked graduate robotics programs in the country. Historically, approximately 20 program participants have co-authored peer-reviewed academic papers that advanced the state of knowledge in the field based on their summer research.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.