National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots | 17 518

Opportunity Information: Apply for 17 518

National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots (NRI-2.0) is a federal grant opportunity aimed at pushing forward fundamental robotics research in the United States, with a clear emphasis on robots that work alongside people rather than replacing them. The central idea is to accelerate the development and real-world use of "collaborative robots" (often called co-robots) that can operate in close coordination with human partners. While the earlier NRI effort concentrated on proving out the basic concept of human-robot collaboration, NRI-2.0 expands the scope to focus on what it takes to make these systems practical at scale, meaning situations where many robots and many humans interact at once, across different settings, and over long periods of operation.

A major theme of the program is scalability and coordination in complex teams. The solicitation highlights the need for research on how multiple robots and multiple humans can interact smoothly and effectively, including how responsibilities, communication, and decision-making should be shared between people and machines. It also calls for advances that allow robots to perform a wide range of tasks in a wide range of environments without constant re-engineering. In other words, the program is interested in robots that can generalize better, adapt faster, and be deployed more broadly with minimal hardware and software changes, rather than systems that only work in a narrowly controlled scenario.

Another key focus is robot learning and the use of shared information. NRI-2.0 encourages approaches where robots improve performance and efficiency by drawing on large pools of data and experience, including resources from the cloud, knowledge learned by other robots, and input from people. This points to research directions such as collective learning, shared autonomy, distributed knowledge representations, and methods that let robots benefit from each other's training and operation history. Closely tied to this is the emphasis on reliability and large-scale operation: the program explicitly notes the importance of designing both hardware and software in ways that support dependable performance when systems are deployed broadly and expected to work safely and consistently.

Beyond the technical research agenda, NRI-2.0 also supports education and workforce development tied to robotics. The opportunity seeks innovative ways to establish and integrate robotics into educational curricula, build clearer education-to-career pathways, and strengthen the robotics workforce. In addition, it recognizes that ubiquitous collaborative robots will have real consequences outside engineering, so it invites exploration of social, behavioral, and economic implications. That can include how people perceive and trust co-robots, how workplaces change when humans and robots share tasks, what new skills become necessary, and what broader impacts these technologies may have on communities and industries.

The program encourages collaboration across universities, industry, non-profits, and other organizations to better connect fundamental science and engineering research with practical technology development, deployment, and use. It also allows international collaborations when they are well justified and clearly add value to the proposed research and education activities. The opportunity is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and supported by multiple federal agencies, including NSF, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Because multiple agencies participate, applicants are expected to align project goals with the mission interests of the relevant agency and direct fit questions to the appropriate agency point of contact referenced in the solicitation.

From the published opportunity details, this is a discretionary grant program (Funding Opportunity Number 17-518) in the science and technology R and D category. The listed award ceiling is $1,500,000, with an anticipated total of about 70 awards. The opportunity was created on Nov 05, 2016, with an original closing date of Feb 02, 2017. Eligibility is described broadly as "Others" with additional clarification referenced in the full solicitation text. The funding is associated with multiple CFDA numbers reflecting the multi-agency nature of the program: 10.310, 12.800, 47.041, 47.070, 47.075, 47.076, 81.049, and 81.104.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.310, 12.800, 47.041, 47.070, 47.075, 47.076, 81.049, 81.104.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 05, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 02, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 70 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 17 518

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