Image courtesy of Michael Goldfarb,
Vanderbilt University
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 17 2012
Contact:
Jessica Meade
nibibpress@mail.nih.gov
301-496-3500
NIH announces national robotics initiative awardees
Multiple government agencies work together to further co-robotics research
Six projects have been awarded funding to develop robots that can interact and work
cooperatively with people and respond to changing environments in a variety of healthcare
applications, the National Institutes of Health, collaborating with three other
federal agencies, announced last week. The total amount for these projects over
the next four years amounts to $4.4M, subject to the availability of funds.
The awardees for the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) will work on projects that
would accelerate the development of the next generation of robotics, in what is
called co-robotics. These projects include robots that help engineers and scientists
better design prosthetic legs for amputees, miniature robot pills that help doctors
diagnose and treat disease, and even microrobots that help researchers make artificial
tissues.
“Robots that can adapt to new situations and support the work and activities
that people do on a daily basis are not just the future of robotics, they are already
here. This work could result in more successful surgeries, better and faster recovery
for stroke patients, and improvements in drug development and testing,” said
Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., NIH director. “Affordable, accessible robotic
technology can facilitate wellness and personalized, home-based health care, especially
for the growing elderly and disabled population.”
Participating in the NRI along with the National Science Foundation, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the United States Department of Agriculture,
the NIH has chosen to fund six projects to help develop co-robotics that can assist
researchers, patients, and clinicians.
- Parallel, Independent Control of Microrobots for Microassembly of Tissues A significant
obstacle for the development of drug therapies is that cells used for drug testing
are not fully representative of cell behavior inside a living person. This project
plans to develop and control 50 micron-size bubbles as a robotic platform that will
be used for the assembly of artificial tissues. The creation of artificial tissues
can improve drug discovery and testing, leading to higher-quality medical care.
Aaron Ohta, University of Hawaii at Manoa
- Advanced Biophotonics for Image-guided Robotic Surgery The ability to completely
remove a tumor through surgery remains one of the most important factors for survival
in patients with cancer. However, tumor removal from the brain is exceptionally
difficult because leaving residual tumor tissue leads to decreased survival and
removing normal healthy brain tissue leads to life-long neurological deficits. The
goal of this research is to develop a robot that assists in automatically and optically
guiding minimally invasive surgery. Eric Seibel, University of Washington, Seattle
- Control of Powered Segmented Legs for Humanoids and Rehabilitation Robotics Current
robotics that help rehabilitate gait use a set of patterns created from observations
of how people walk. However, this does not allow the flexibility people needed in
unstructured environments such as uneven pavement, grass, slopes, and stairs. The
goal of this project is to uncover the principles behind the biomechanical design
and neuromuscular control of human legs in a variety of gaits and to transfer these
principles to the design and control of advanced powered leg prostheses and robotic
rehabilitation devices. Hartmut Geyer, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
- High Performance Robotic Below-Knee Prostheses In human locomotion, the ankle plays
an important energetic role, and supplies substantially more positive power than
the knee and hip. However, in the majority of existing below-knee prostheses, the
prosthetic ankle joints are energy-passive, only storing and dissipating energy
in use. The proposed project aims to develop a novel robotic actuator that can generate
more power and store a larger amount of energy in a compact and light-weight robotic
prosthesis, with the objective of significantly enhancing the health and life quality
of the 400,000 trans-tibial (below-knee) amputees in the United States. Xiangrong
Shen, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
- Personal Pill-Sized Soft Medical Robots for the Gastrointestinal Tract While pill-sized
capsule endoscopes are increasingly used as wireless imaging devices for diagnosing
diseases in the digestive tract, they are limited to sensing applications. This
proposal aims to address these limitations by designing and manufacturing new pill-sized
soft capsule robots that can be precisely controlled remotely to enable diagnostic
and therapeutic functions in the digestive tract for clinical and potentially personal
use. Metin Sitti, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
- Brain Machine Interface (BMI) Control of a Therapeutic Exoskeleton Robotic rehabilitation
is an effective platform for retraining the sensing and motor skills of stroke patients.
A robotic device enables accurate positioning of the impaired limb while simultaneously
providing assistance and resistance forces and collection of motion data that can
be used to characterize the quality of the patient's movements. This proposal
plans to combine a human-robot interface with a non-invasive brain-machine to allow
the patient to use their thoughts to control the movement of the robot to better
rehabilitate their stroke affected upper limb. Jose L Contreras-Vidal, University
of Houston; Gerard Francisco, UTHealth and Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and
Research Memorial Hermann, and Marcia O'Malley, Rice University.
Robotics that quickly adapt to changes of the user and in the environment can further
allow persons with disabilities to return to work, play instruments, perform sports,
and engage in all aspects of human life with endurance and dignity. Mobility and
manipulation aids can significantly improve the independence of the temporarily
and permanently disabled. NIH has long supported the development and use of robotic
technologies through its 27 institutes and centers. This research will be supported
by the grants EB016458-01; EB016457-01; HD075492-01; HD075493-01; NR014083-01; NS081854-01
from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging (NIBIB), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute
of Nursing Research (NINR), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders
and Stroke (NINDS).
About the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering:
NIBIB’s mission is to support multidisciplinary research and research training
at the crossroads of engineering and the biological and physical sciences. NIBIB
supports emerging technology research and development within its internal laboratories
and through grants, collaborations, and training. More information is available
at the NIBIB website: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/.
About the National Institutes of Health:
NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the
primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational
medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.
Last Updated On 09/19/2012