Collaborative Research: Plant-Inspired Growing Robots Operating in Multiple Time Scales

协作研究：在多个时间尺度上运行的植物启发种植机器人

• 批准号: 2312422
• 负责人: Suyi Li
• 金额: $ 50.17万
• 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: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2312422&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Plant; Inspired; Growing

This award supports fundamental research to create plant-inspired robots for long-duration monitoring missions in congested and dynamically evolving environments. Such environments abound in our world, for example, urban shopping districts, tropical forests, underwater reefs, and undeveloped islands. These locations are typically inaccessible and resource-limited for human operations, and they evolve slowly but substantially over time (e.g., propagating vegetation). However, “being right there” in these environments and responding to events at multiple time scales is critical, especially for environmental protection. Therefore, in this project plant-inspired robots will be designed to monitor and react to long-term processes like pollution spread, humidity levels, and seasonal migration of animal groups, as well as randomly occurring real-time events like pollution outbreaks, forest fires, and sightings of rare animals. To this end, the research team will abstract different capacities of plants—their distributed movements from slow to ballistic speed, adaptation according to ambient conditions, and energy harvesting processes—to establish new approaches toward robotic structure, motion, and functionality. On the education and outreach front, the award will support curriculum development in bio-inspired robotics, participation of undergraduate students in research, and outreach activities for middle school girls.The objective of this research is to enable development of plant-inspired robots capable of long-duration service in complex, dynamic environments by pursuing significant innovations in structural, energetic, and operational designs of robots, e.g., robotic hardware that mimics plant-like “growth” and adaptation; advancement in robotic movements to cover both real-time events (seconds/minutes) and long-term processes (weeks/months); and energy harvesting components for long-duration autonomy. The research team will achieve the objective by: (1) leveraging origami principles to create robotic “trunk” components capable of discrete and energy efficient growth-like deformations via folding and self-locking; (2) using principles from continuum robots to devise “leaf” and “needle” components capable of continuous and short-duration motions for monitoring and manipulating the ambient environment; (3) laying down the foundation for energy autonomy by exploring diverse energy harvesting approaches similar to those that plants employ; and (4) integration to enable multiple time-scale operations. Finally, this new concept of plant-inspired growing robots will be validated and evaluated via fully functional prototypes applied to campus pedestrian traffic and natural habitat monitoring in long-duration outdoor demonstrations.This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).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.

该奖项支持基础研究，以创造植物启发的机器人，在拥挤和动态变化的环境中执行长期监测任务，例如城市购物区、热带森林、水下珊瑚礁和未开发的岛屿。对于人类活动来说，这些环境通常难以到达且资源有限，并且随着时间的推移，它们会缓慢但显着地进化（例如，繁殖植被）。然而，在这些环境中“就在那里”并在多个时间尺度上响应事件至关重要，尤其是对于这些环境。因此，在这个项目中，植物启发的机器人将被设计来监测和反应长期过程，如污染扩散、湿度水平和动物群体的季节性迁徙，以及随机发生的实时事件，如污染爆发。为此，研究小组将抽象植物的不同能力——从慢速到弹道速度的分布式运动、根据环境条件的适应以及能量收集过程——以建立机器人的新方法。关于结构、运动和功能。在外展方面，该奖项将支持仿生机器人的课程开发、本科生参与研究以及针对中学生的外展活动。这项研究的目的是开发能够长期服务的植物仿生机器人在复杂、动态的环境中，通过追求机器人结构、能量和操作设计的重大创新，例如模仿植物“生长”和适应机器人运动的进步以涵盖实时事件（秒/分钟）的机器人硬件； ）和长期过程（数周/月）；以及用于长期自主的能量收集组件，研究团队将通过以下方式实现这一目标：（1）利用折纸原理创建能够通过折叠实现离散且节能的生长状变形的机器人“躯干”组件。和自锁；（2）利用连续体机器人的原理设计能够连续和短时间运动的“叶”和“针”组件，用于监测和操纵周围环境；通过探索类似于植物所采用的多种能量收集方法，为能源自主奠定基础；(4) 集成以实现多种时间尺度的操作，最后，这种植物启发的生长机器人的新概念将通过功能齐全的方式进行验证和评估。原型应用于长时间户外演示中的校园行人交通和自然栖息地监测。该项目得到了机器人学跨部门基础研究项目的支持，该项目由工程部 (ENG) 和计算机与信息科学部共同管理和资助，工程（CISE）。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。