CDC grants for study of co-robots in workplace

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $1.5 million to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study ways to reduce workers’ exposure to hazards through the development and use of collaborative robots, the CDC announced in a statement Monday.

The initiative is intended to accelerate use of collaborative robots, also known as co-robots, an emerging robotic technology that complements but does not replace human workers.

“The future of work includes a workplace where robots work in tandem with, or are even worn by, human workers,” Dr. John Howard, director of CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement. “This important research will help guide the development and use of co-robots that can help minimize health and safety risks to workers.”

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute will focus on remote-controlled nursing robots, which can reduce workload and the risk of infection, by looking at ways to make it easier to operate them from a distance and creating best practices for integrating the co-robots into current nursing education.

The UIC researchers will study the effectiveness of personalized, wearable robots in manufacturing that sense a wearer’s physical efforts and respond to prevent lifting injuries and musculoskeletal disorders.

Funding for the grant comes from NIOSH and the National Science Foundation.