CAREER: Acoustic Vortex Robots for Contactless 6-Degrees-of-Freedom Object Manipulation

职业：用于非接触式 6 自由度物体操纵的声学涡旋机器人

• 批准号: 2340016
• 负责人: Zhenhua Tian
• 金额: $ 64.99万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2029-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2340016&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Acoustic; Vortex; Robots; Contactless

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will fund research that enables robotic platforms to achieve contactless, high-resolution, 6-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) manipulation of nano-to-millimeter-sized objects, thereby prompting the progress of science. This project will support fundamental research to first develop new robotic end effectors, namely, contactless acoustic vortex end effectors, by understanding acoustic vortex-enabled object motions and finding solutions to control the motions. This project will develop acoustic vortex robots, which will leverage acoustic vortex end effectors integrated with robotic arms to enable contactless 6-DOF object manipulation with appealing features, including three-dimensional (3D) object rotation, 3D object translation, high translation accuracy (1.5 μm), wide translation range (200 mm), control of objects with different sizes and material properties, and noninvasive manipulation of objects shielded by barriers such as tissue and skull. This project will accelerate the development of future robotic technologies for biology and manufacturing applications such as handling delicate bioparticles for automated sorting and arranging single cells for bioprinting. Through education and outreach activities with the theme of acoustic object manipulation, this project will broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities, increase public engagement with science and technology, and provide learning and training opportunities for graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 students.This research aims to develop contactless acoustic vortex end effectors and acoustic vortex robots, by understanding acoustic vortex-vortex interaction and vortex-enabled object motions and addressing the questions of how to control the interaction and how to control the object motions. To achieve these objectives, the researchers will first establish theoretical models to study acoustic coaxial- and tri-vortex interactions, and numerical models to study the effects of coaxial- and tri-vortex on object motions. Based on the modeling results, coaxial vortex end effectors will be developed to trap an object and control its bidirectional rotation. Tri-vortex end effectors will then be developed to control the 3D rotation of the trapped object. End effectors based on micro-interdigital transducers will be developed to generate high-frequency, high-resolution acoustic vortex beams for manipulating micro/nano-objects. These end effectors will be integrated with robotic arms to develop acoustic vortex robots, and they will be validated through contactless object manipulation tests, such as arranging single cells for bioprinting, translating objects inside a biomimetic phantom, and rotating objects in regions shielded by tissue and skull barriers.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.

该学院早期职业发展 (CAREER) 奖将资助研究，使机器人平台能够实现对纳米到毫米大小物体的非接触式、高分辨率、6 自由度 (6-DOF) 操纵，从而促进该项目将支持基础研究，通过了解声涡驱动的物体运动并找到控制运动的解决方案，首先开发新型机器人末端执行器，即非接触式声涡末端执行器。将开发声涡机器人，该机器人将利用与机械臂集成的声涡末端执行器，实现非接触式六自由度物体操纵，并具有吸引人的功能，包括三维（3D）物体旋转、3D物体平移、高平移精度（1.5μm） ，宽平移范围（200毫米），控制不同尺寸和材料特性的物体，以及对组织和头骨等屏障屏蔽的物体进行无创操作。该项目将加速未来机器人技术在生物学和制造应用中的发展。通过以声学物体操纵为主题的教育和外展活动，该项目将扩大代表性不足的少数群体的参与，增加公众对科学技术的参与，并提供学习和培训。为研究生、本科生和 K-12 学生提供机会。这项研究旨在通过了解声学涡旋-涡旋相互作用和支持涡旋的物体运动，开发非接触式声涡末端执行器和声涡机器人并解决如何控制相互作用以及如何控制物体运动的问题为了实现这些目标，研究人员将首先建立研究声学同轴和三涡相互作用的理论模型，以及研究同轴效应的数值模型。 - 以及物体运动的三涡旋。根据建模结果，将开发同轴涡旋末端执行器来捕获物体并控制其双向旋转，然后将开发三涡旋末端执行器来控制被捕获物体的 3D 旋转。 。结尾将开发基于微型叉指换能器的效应器，以产生高频、高分辨率的声涡流光束，用于操纵微/纳米物体。这些末端执行器将与机械臂集成，开发声涡机器人，并将对其进行验证。通过非接触式物体操纵测试，例如安排单细胞进行生物打印、在仿生体模内平移物体以及在组织和头骨屏障屏蔽的区域中旋转物体。该奖项反映了通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。