PFI: Autonomous Robotic Rotorcraft for Exploration, Surveillance and Transportation (ARREST)

这个创新伙伴关系（PFI）项目，即用于探测、监视和运输的自主机器人旋翼机（ARREST），来自宾夕法尼亚大学，将在小型旋翼机和传感器领域的小企业企业家和宾夕法尼亚大学开发自主机器人的机器人研究人员之间建立伙伴关系。通过在合作伙伴之间实施结构松散、以应用为中心、“类似游戏的沙盒”环境，该合作伙伴关系将使联邦政府资助的基础研究成果转化为具有社会效益和商业影响的产品。这个项目的智力价值来自于四个项目，旨在通过机器人技术和无人机技术的交叉受精来开发产品/技术，以及建立一个沙盒，以鼓励探索正在开发、已经开发或可以开发的技术的潜在应用和市场。新的研究贡献将包括小型自主微型飞行器的开发以及用于传感、感知、控制和导航的算法/软件，而无需直接的人类命令或干预。此外，这一伙伴关系还提议在博士教育中进行创新，为学生培训增加一个新的维度，以鼓励“横向和类比思维”。它将包括与技术转让专家、发明家和风险资本家的有组织的互动；在工业合作伙伴的基地进行合作研究；以及刺激创新的新机制，其中包括一个名为“y奖”的“倒x奖”竞赛，该竞赛将平台作为解决方案空间（而不是问题空间），从而通过产生使用或调整现有技术解决方案和方法的新颖应用想法来促进创新。该项目的更广泛影响是将与知识增强伙伴合作确定新的商业应用和产品，此外，还将利用已经开发的技术来创造这些产品。这些产品将直接用于参与第一反应的最终用户，也将为国土安全和军队提供增量效益。这一合作将创造一个新的机器人旋翼机产业，并帮助培养新一代的博士生，他们不仅接受了顶尖博士项目所期望的基础知识的深度培训，而且还接受了敏捷、创新小企业所特有的“横向思维”的培训。该伙伴关系将建立一个模型，以利用国防部在两用应用基础研究方面的投资，并建立一个框架，以确定和追求与安全、第一反应和国防应用不直接相关的商业应用。项目启动时的合作伙伴包括知识增强伙伴关系（KEP）单位，由宾夕法尼亚大学（GRASP机器人实验室）组成；两家小企业：Dragon Pictures， Inc.（宾夕法尼亚州埃辛顿）和emergenentviews（加利福尼亚州旧金山）；以及一个大型私营组织：洛克希德·马丁公司的先进技术实验室。此外，还有其他核心合作伙伴。其中包括公共部门的合作伙伴：费城市、宾夕法尼亚东南部本·富兰克林技术合作伙伴及其天使和风险投资者网络。

This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project, Autonomous Robotic Rotorcraft for Exploration, Surveillance, and Transportation (ARREST), from the University of Pennsylvania will create a partnership among small-business entrepreneurs in small rotor-craft and sensors and robotics researchers at the University of Pennsylvania developing autonomous robots. The partnership will enable the translation of fundamental, federally-sponsored, research results into products with societal benefits and commercial impact by implementing a loosely structured, application-focused, "play-like sandbox" environment among its partners. The intellectual merit of this project is derived from four projects aimed at developing products/ technologies enabled by the cross-fertilization of technologies for robotics and Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) and from the establishment of a sandbox to encourage exploration of potential applications and markets for technologies that are being, have been, or can be developed. New research contributions will include the development of small, autonomous micro aerial vehicles and the algorithms/software for sensing, perception, control and navigation without direct human command or intervention. Additionally, the partnership proposes innovation in doctoral education by adding a new dimension to student training to encourage "lateral and analogous thinking." It will consist of structured interactions with technology transfer specialists, inventors, and venture capitalists; collaborative research at the sites of the industrial partners; and new mechanisms for spurring innovation that includes an "inverted X-prize" competition called the "Y-prize," which focuses on the platform as the solution space (instead of as the problem space), thus fostering innovation by generating novel application ideas for using or adapting existing technological solutions and methodologies.The broader impacts of the project are the new commercial applications and products that will be identified in collaboration with the knowledge-enhancement partners, and, in addition, the leveraging of already developed technologies to create these products. These products will be of direct use to end-users engaged in first response and also will provide incremental benefits to homeland security and to the military. The partnership will lead to the creation of a new robotics rotorcraft industry and help spawn a new generation of doctoral students, trained in the fundamentals with a depth that has come to be expected in top-notch doctoral programs, but also in the "lateral thinking" that is characteristic of agile, innovative small businesses. The partnership will establish a model for leveraging Department of Defense investment in basic research for dual-use applications and a framework for identifying and pursuing commercial applications that are not directly connected to security, first response, and defense applications. Partners at the inception of the project include the Knowledge Enhancement Partnership (KEP) unit, consisting of the University of Pennsylvania (GRASP Robotics Laboratory); two small businesses: Dragon Pictures, Inc. (Essington, PA) and EmergentViews (San Francisco, CA); and a large private sector organization: Advanced Technologies Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Corporation. In addition, there are other core partners. These include public sector partners: the City of Philadelphia, and the Southeast Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Technology Partnership and their network of Angel and Venture Investors.