IGERT: Soft Material Robotics

IGERT：软材料机器人。这个综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)奖项创建了一个跨学科的研究生项目，以发展软机器人领域的进步。这些受动物启发的机器将能够完成传统机器人难以完成的复杂任务，适合与人类近距离互动，并能够在环境敏感的地点工作。这项研究将跨越传统的学科界限，使用新的生物材料，利用细胞过程和组织工程方法，并使用源自进化原理的控制策略？博大影响：这项新技术的发展为培养具有创造力和创业精神的未来科学和工程领导者提供了一个令人兴奋的机会。IGERT学员将接受多学科培训，包括材料科学、神经力学、机械控制系统、计算机科学、人工智能和产品设计。新的协作培训方法包括组建导师团队和创新的基于问题解决的教育模式。IGERT学员将利用生物工程方法进行机械设计、制造和控制新的机器人设备，以应对当前广泛的医疗、社会和环境挑战。例如，软机器人可以被开发用于内部医疗诊断和治疗，或者用于搜索和救援行动以及生物修复。国际合作伙伴是新兴软机器人领域的领导者，他们将帮助学员在世界各地建立合作和联系。这些学生将在生物学和工程学的新兴领域建立桥梁，以创造革命性的新技术，包括用于人类协助的机器人和环保的可生物降解机器人。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在建立新的研究生教育和培训模式，为超越传统学科界限的合作研究创造一个肥沃的环境，并让学生了解将研究转化为创新以造福社会的过程。

IGERT: Soft Material Robotics.This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award creates an interdisciplinary graduate program to develop advances in the field of soft robotics. These machines, inspired by animals, will be capable of complex tasks that are difficult to achieve with conventional robots, suitable for close interactions with humans, and able to work in environmentally sensitive locations. The research will cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, employing novel biomaterials, exploiting cellular processes and tissue engineering methods, and using control strategies derived from evolutionary principles ? approaches that are comparatively rare in conventional robotics.Broader Impacts: The development of this new technology provides an exciting opportunity to train inventive and entrepreneurial future science and engineering leaders. IGERT trainees will train in multiple disciplines, including materials science, neuromechanics, mechanical control systems, computer science, artificial intelligence and product design. Novel collaborative training approaches include the formation of mentorship teams and an innovative problem solving-based model of education. IGERT trainees will exploit bioengineering approaches to machine design, fabricate and control new robotic devices to address a wide range of current medical, social and environmental challenges. For example, soft robots could be developed for internal medical diagnosis and delivery of therapeutics, or for search and rescue operations and bioremediation. The international partners, leaders in the emerging field of soft robots, will help trainees form collaborations and affiliations across the world. These students will bridge emerging areas of biology and engineering to create revolutionary new technologies including robots for human assistance and environmentally-friendly biodegradable robots. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, and to engage students in understanding the processes by which research is translated to innovations for societal benefit.