Multidisciplinary Research on Biologically Inspired Robots
Abstract
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, under authority of 10 U.S.C. ยค 2362 and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OASD(R&E)), allocated $28 million to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) with equipment and instrumentation enhancements to improve their research and education capabilities in scientific disciplines important to the defense mission. The program aims enhance the capacity of HBCU/MI to participate broadly in defense research programs and activities and to increase the number of graduates, including underrepresented minorities, in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This proposal requests assistance for the acquisition of equipment that will help accomplish research in Biologically Inspired Robots at the Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS) Laboratory located at University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) in San Antonio, TX. The requested equipment will expand the research capability of the AVS Laboratory by purchasing equipment that will seed the capacity to launch a multidisciplinary research program to develop Biologically Inspired Robots. The long-term research goal for the AVS Laboratory is to investigate techniques for autonomous learning, collaboration, and decision-making in unstructured, dynamic, and uncertain nonlinear environments for ground and air vehicles. To meet this goal, the PI will establish fundamental research on developing biologically inspired robots that emulate sensory and sensorimotor systems of natural organisms. The studied behaviors will be integrated into small autonomous ground and air vehicles for improving their basic control mechanisms including path selection, obstacle avoidance, and evasion. The HBCU/MI-2016 equipment grant will help the PI to purchase the following laboratory equipment: 1. Quanser unmanned vehicle system laboratory including eight programmable ground vehicles, seven programmable air vehicles, four programmable robotic arms, eight simulation workstations, and the essential network licenses and data acquisition systems, 2. 10 MATLAB and Simulink licenses for animal behavior modeling and developing mathematical algorithms, 3. 33 Wolfram Mathematica licenses for integrating the research into undergraduate science Curriculum. With the proposed equipment the PI will be able to (1) Analyze stealthy behavioral patterns in response to audio-visual-vibrational signals, foraging, and swarm cohesion in insects and nocturnal animals, (2) Analyze sensory and sensorimotor mechanisms, (3) Build biologically inspired robots, (4) Develop and implement algorithms to control these robots, (5) Establish a multidisciplinary research program on biological robots, and (6) Investigate the possibilities to integrate the studied behaviors in unmanned aerial or ground vehicles (UAV/UGV) for their control, navigation, and evasion. Proposed equipment will provide undergraduate/graduate students opportunities for empirical research. It will enhance the STEM curriculum at UIW and assist to graduate diverse and highly qualified professionals who will fill STEM occupations of national need in industry, academia, and government.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 22, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1610526
Entities
People
- Sreerenjini Nair
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of the Incarnate Word