Prof. Bekris and Prof. Yu recent National Science Foundation award “FRR: Semi-Structured, Under-Specified, Partially-Observable Robotic Rearrangement” aims to develop advanced technologies for intelligent robots to efficiently and autonomously interact with objects in everyday, human environments, such as homes and grocery stores, given general, natural language task descriptions. This technology addresses significant societal issues, including the support of older adults in independent living.
As people age, reduced mobility often leads to frequent and severe injuries due to impaired vision, home hazards, and weakness. Household robots can assist with tasks like retrieving, transferring, and rearranging items, such as setting up a dinner table or grabbing a jar from the back of a cabinet. Similarly, rearranging robots can assist with labor-intensive, repetitive inventory management tasks in retail operations. Such tasks, like tidying and restocking shelves, are labor-intensive and can lead to injuries, while these jobs are often difficult to fill and have high turnover rates.
This three-year project will be supported by the CISE CCF division in the amount of $700K.
To learn more about this project visit:https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2309866&HistoricalAwards=false
