Integrating Robots into the Future of Work

将机器人融入未来的工作

• 批准号: 2152163
• 负责人: Bilge Mutlu
• 金额: $ 300万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2152163&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Integrating; Robots; into; Future; Work

Recent technical advances have enabled a new family of robotic technologies, termed collaborative robots, or “cobots.” Unlike traditional “caged” industrial robots that are limited to isolated factory environments, cobots make it safe and practical for robots to work in the same environments in which people work and live. These technologies have the potential to fundamentally transform how physical work is performed in industries from manufacturing to services and in occupations ranging from manual labor to highly trained professions. Rather than automating away human labor, cobots have the potential to enhance productivity, safety, and ergonomic conditions for human workers. Realizing this potential will require not only advancing technology to create sufficiently capable robots but also addressing human-centered questions ranging from how individuals interact with robots to how the introduction of robots affects personal life, the workplace, job satisfaction, communities and societies. Despite these broad-ranging and interdisciplinary research challenges, robotic technology is primarily driven by scientists with deep technical backgrounds but little experience with human-centered and societal issues. On the other hand, social scientists studying how robots might affect human work may lack an understanding of the capabilities of robotic technology as well as the possibilities enabled by them. Addressing these challenges will require a new generation of “STEM+” researchers capable of marrying technical and social-scientific knowledge and skills to carry out rigorous, groundbreaking fundamental research at the boundary of people and technology. The INTEGRATE training program provides a unique academic environment to train graduate students in STEM disciplines, including computer science, engineering, psychology, and economics, to become technologists and social scientists equipped to address the significant technical and human-centric challenges at the individual, organizational, and societal scales. The program achieves this goal through key innovations in STEM curricula, experiential research training, professional development opportunities, community development, and program evaluation. Trainees who complete the program will help form a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers who will work across disciplinary boundaries to shape robotic technologies and the future of work in a way that maximizes individual and societal benefit. In addition to advancing and enriching STEM training, the program makes significant societal contributions through new technologies that will improve the lives of workers; new knowledge and guidelines that will improve organizations and industries; and new recommendations that inform labor practices, technology policy, and the legal system.The INTEGRATE program provides a unique academic environment to enrich the training of graduate students in STEM disciplines, including computer science, engineering, psychology, and economics, to address fundamental research challenges in realizing the integration of robots into the future of work. The program achieves these goals through five key components and innovations. The first is a flexible, personalized curriculum that combines core STEM training with coursework from complementary human-centered disciplines in the form of a set of concentration areas. The second component consists of hands-on, immersive, and mentored research experiences through apprenticeship-based industry-sponsored team research projects on real-world problems, called “Expeditions.” The third element is comprised of opportunities for professional development through internships and secondments at a network of partner industrial and academic organizations. Fourth is the forming of an INTEGRATE Research Community through weekly colloquia, an annual “INTEGRATE Week” event, and significant online presence and activity. Fifth and finally is continuous and rigorous assessment of program effectiveness in training, research productivity, and real-world relevance and impact toward program refinement. This highly interdisciplinary program brings together faculty from computer sciences; mechanical and industrial & systems engineering; psychology; educational psychology; business; law; and public affairs/economics. Throughout the program, trainees participate in research that investigates research challenges at the micro, systems, and macro scales. At the micro level, research includes the design of novel interfaces and algorithms to enable effective teaming between people and robots; studies of how humans build working relationships with robots; investigations of the impact of working with robots on human health, safety, life and job satisfaction, and wellbeing; and development of training programs for people to effectively work with robots. At the systems level, trainees study the integration of robotic assistants into home life, the workplace, and industrial processes; how they must be redesigned to best utilize cobots; how robots change organizations; and the changes in organizational behavior and adoption around robots. At the macro scale, trainee research teams will investigate how the introduction of robots affects human labor across demographic groups and communities and develops public policy changes that might be necessary to maximize the societal utility of robotic technologies. In the program, trainees build research skills that integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives, knowledge, and skills as well as core professional skills in communication, teamwork, and ethical decision making.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

最近的技术进步催生了一系列新的机器人技术，称为协作机器人或“协作机器人”。与仅限于孤立的工厂环境的传统“笼式”工业机器人不同，协作机器人使机器人可以在相同的环境中安全实用地工作。这些技术有可能从根本上改变从制造业到服务业以及从体力劳动到训练有素的职业等各种体力劳动的方式，而不是使人类劳动自动化。提高实现人类工人的生产力、安全性和人体工学条件不仅需要先进的技术来创造足够强大的机器人，还需要解决以人为中心的问题，从个人如何与机器人互动到机器人的引入如何影响个人生活，尽管存在这些广泛的跨学科研究挑战，但机器人技术主要是由具有深厚技术背景但对以人为中心的社会问题缺乏经验的科学家推动的。机器人可能会影响人类的工作可能缺乏对机器人技术的能力及其所带来的可能性的了解，要解决这些挑战，需要新一代的“STEM+”研究人员能够将技术和社会科学知识和技能结合起来，开展严格的、开创性的基础研究。 INTEGRATE 培训项目提供了一个独特的学术环境来培训 STEM 学科（包括计算机科学、工程学、心理学和经济学）的研究生，使他们成为能够解决重大技术和问题的技术专家和社会科学家。以人为本该计划通过 STEM 课程、体验式研究培训、专业发展机会、社区发展和计划评估方面的关键创新来实现这一目标。跨学科研究人员将跨越学科界限，以最大限度地提高个人和社会利益的方式塑造机器人技术和未来工作。除了推进和丰富 STEM 培训外，该项目还通过改善生活的新技术做出了重大社会贡献。工人数量；旨在改善组织和行业的新知识和指导方针；以及为劳工实践、技术政策和法律体系提供信息的新建议。INTEGRATE 项目提供了独特的学术环境，以丰富 STEM 学科（包括计算机科学、该项目通过五个关键组成部分和创新来解决基础研究挑战，将核心 STEM 培训与工程、心理学和经济学相结合。以人为本的补充课程第二个组成部分包括通过基于学徒制的行业资助的针对现实问题的团队研究项目的实践、身临其境和指导的研究经验，称为“探险”。第四是通过每周座谈会、年度“整合周”活动以及重要的在线展示和交流来形成整合研究社区。第五，最后是对项目在培训、研究生产力以及现实世界相关性和对项目改进的影响方面进行持续和严格的评估。在整个项目中，学员将参与研究微观、系统和宏观层面的研究挑战，包括设计新颖的界面和算法。人与机器人之间的协作；研究人类如何与机器人建立工作关系；调查与机器人一起工作对人类健康、安全、生活和工作满意度以及福祉的影响；以及制定在系统层面上有效与机器人合作的培训计划。学员将学习如何将机器人助手融入家庭生活、工作场所和工业流程；如何重新设计它们以最好地利用协作机器人；以及机器人如何在宏观层面上改变组织行为和采用。研究小组将研究如何引入机器人影响整个人口群体和社区的人类劳动力，并制定公共政策变革，这可能是最大限度地发挥机器人技术的社会效用所必需的。在该计划中，学员将培养整合多个学科观点、知识和技能以及核心专业知识的研究技能。 NSF 研究实习 (NRT) 计划旨在鼓励为 STEM 研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的新模式。该计划致力于有效培训 STEM 毕业生。高优先级跨学科学生通过创新、循证且符合不断变化的劳动力和研究需求的综合培训模型，在融合研究领域开展研究。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Making Informed Decisions: Supporting Cobot Integration Considering Business and Worker Preferences

• DOI: 10.1145/3610977.3634937
• 发表时间: 2024-01
• 期刊: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
• 作者: Dakota Sullivan;N. White;Andrew Schoen;Bilge Mutlu

Handheld Haptic Device with Coupled Bidirectional Input

具有耦合双向输入的手持式触觉设备

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: IEEE World Haptics Conference
• 作者: Doshi, M. V.;Hagenow, M.;Radwin, R.;Gleicher, M.;Mutlu, B.;Zinn, M.
• 通讯作者: Zinn, M.