This science is the evolution of robotics aimed at creating a symbiosis between man and machine and paves the way for, among other things, more realistic and useful prosthetic for amputees and the disabled, and a safer working environment where robots and humans work side-by-side.

The range of award recipients include everything from robots with programmable “skins” that allow them to alter their shapes to miniature robots made from muscle cells grown on an elastic filament.

“Configurable, strong, mobile robots could safely explore environments too hostile for humans, such as disaster zones and the deep ocean,” said Dawn Tilbury, NSF’s assistant director for Engineering. “They could allow unprecedented extension of human perception and action to places we’ve only dreamed about, opening up vast reservoirs of knowledge and potential for innovation.”

Unlike traditional rigid machines used in factories today, which can often create a safety hazard if not managed properly, the soft robots are able to change their shape to match their environment. As such, these robots can contour to delicate surfaces instead of damaging them.

Soft robots can safely share space with a human coworker, or help a person up out of a chair for example. Because the rules for controlling the movement of soft robots are largely unknown, this area of research requires the exploration of entirely new concepts and designs for what these devices are and can do.

“Soft robotics promise enormous advantages over traditional rigid robots, such as safer working environments and greater — literal — flexibility,” Tilbury said. “Robots are permeating nearly every sector of our economy and society, changing how we work, live and play. Successfully adapting to this evolving landscape requires creating technology that adapts to us, humans. Meeting this future need requires re-engineering systems, from bottom to top and from nose to tail.”

Building on a long history of NSF investments in fundamental robotics research, the new awards announced this week will focus on:

• Designing soft systems for transferring power and information.
• Creating new active soft materials and structures.
• Creating representations that can model and predict large deformations of flexible structures.
• Formulating new theories of movement and manipulation of flexible structures.

Ten $2 million awards (over the course of four years) was awarded to the following teams:

1. Magneto-electroactive Soft, Continuum, Compliant, Configurable (MESo-C3) Robots for Medical Applications Across Scales, Jake Abbott, University of Utah
2. Muscle-like Cellular Architectures and Compliant, Distributed Sensing and Control for Soft Robots, Aaron Dollar, Yale University
3. An integrated approach towards computational design, fabrication and understanding of bio-hybrid soft architectures capable of adaptive behavior, Mattia Gazzola, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4. Programming Thermobiochemomechanical (TBCM) Multiplex Robot Gels, David Gracias, Johns Hopkins University
5. Strong Soft Robots — Multiscale Burrowing and Inverse Design, Timothy Kowalewski, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
6. Programmable Skins for Moldable and Morphogenetic Soft Robots, Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, Yale University
7. Soft, Strong and Safe Configurable Robots for Diverse Manipulation Tasks, Daniela Rus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. An End-To-End Framework For Soft Robot Design And Control Based On High-Performance Electrohydraulic Transducers, Robert Shepherd, Cornell University
9. Design Principles for Soft Robots Based on Boundary Constrained Granular Swarms, Matthew Spenko, Illinois Institute of Technology
10. Textile Robotics: Integrative Design, Modeling, Manufacture, and Control of Soft Human-Interactive Apparel, Conor Walsh, Harvard University

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