Rimando shakes hand with a Robonaut 2 at Johnson Space Center. It was the first human-like robot NASA launched to space.

WASHINGTON, D.C. EM and other federal government entities working to spur advances in robotics have issued a new call for research proposals in their campaign to develop co-robots that can work in cooperation with people.

   EM last November signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), an effort launched in 2011 to devise new methods of incorporating robotic technology in science and manufacturing. 

   The recent call for proposals is the first step toward awarding new grants, including some that will carve a new niche for the use of robotics in nuclear applications, with practical benefits for EM’s environmental cleanup mission.

   “Everything else has been nonnuclear, but ours is really the first that is focused on the nuclear industry, with an emphasis on entering spaces that we would not allow workers to enter because of the nature of the hazards,” said Rodrigo Rimando, EM senior technical adviser.

   NSF and its partners including the Defense and Agriculture departments, NASA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and National Institutes of Health announced $37 million in robotics grants last month.

   Applications for a new round of funding are due March 7. It’s the first round in which EM is a participant, and Rimando said he expects a robust reaction based in part on an enthusiastic response that greeted an earlier DOE solicitation to universities for robotics proposals.

   “That is an indicator to us that within the robotics community there is a lot of interest in applying that technology to the work we have to do,” Rimando said.

   Participation in NRI is an opportunity to leverage EM’s expertise.

   “Because we have such a diverse work scope with problem sets that cross-cut many domains of robotics, we are very well postured to take a lead in the Department for robotics, and that’s exciting,” Rimando said. 

   “Robotics is an enabling tool,” he said. “It will allow us to do our work safer and smarter. If there is anything that can improve the safety, the quality and the efficiency of our workers, robotics is something that can be done. There are so many benefits we can gain from employing that type of technology.”

   Rimando is working to establish a partnership with NASA after he met with key roboticists from the agency and visited one of its premier robotics laboratories at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

   “If you were to compare the conditions on the moon or Mars, and the tasks that astronauts have to perform in space, you quickly realize that the challenges of working in hazardous or harsh environments or handling high consequence materials that we face in cleanup are similar, and robotics is a common solution,” Rimando said.

   “Leveraging American taxpayer dollars being spent on robotics by other federal agencies is a no-brainer. By partnering with those agencies, EM will benefit greatly from those investments,” he added.