The National Science Foundation just approved a $1.35 million project being headed at University of Texas at Arlington. The goal:
“Our goal is to make robots and robotic technology more human-like and more human-friendly,” said Popa, who leads UT Arlington’s Next Gen Systems group within the College of Engineering. “Robotic devices need to be safe and better able to detect human intent.
“When someone is wearing a prosthetic, we want that prosthetic to be able to determine when a baseball is being thrown at it, then catch the ball.”
The four-year project is part of the NSF’s National Robotics Initiative, which is aimed at accelerating the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside or cooperatively with people. The UT Arlington team’s grant was the largest among the initiative’s 37 awards this fall.
