Spring 2021 MnRI Seed Grant recipients announced

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/08/2021) — The Minnesota Robotics Institute is pleased to announce that seven new research projects are being funded through the MnRI Seed Grant program in Spring 2021. MnRI received several submissions from faculty across the University of Minnesota and selected seven proposals based on an NSF-style panel review process. These projects will be funded through January 2022:


  • Autonomous Robotic Detection and Manipulation for Marine Debris Removal | Changhyun Choi and Junaed Sattar 
  • Muscle-Powered Exoskeleton for Standing and Walking by People with Spinal Cord Injury | Will Durfee and Andrew Hanson
  • Formal Analysis of Robot Swarms Doing Object Gathering Tasks | Maria Gini and Daniel Boley
  • A Cranial Exoskeleton Assisted Large-Scale Whole-Brain Neural Recording During Complex, Unrestrained Behaviors | Suhasa Bangalore Kodandaramiah and Timothy Ebner
  • Using Computer Vision to Measure Social Distancing Behavior in Public Spaces | Julian Wolfson, Ingrid Schneider, and Catherine Zhao
  • OpenMonkeyStudio++: Fine-Grained Movement Tracking and Analysis in Non-human Primates | Jan Zimmerman, Benjamin Hayden, and Hyun Soo Park
  • Integrated Automated Design for E-Textile Circuits and Systems | Lucy Dunne and John Sartori

Please welcome the Minnesota Robotics Institute in congratulating this round's seed grant recipients and thanking every submission. We are looking forward to another year of innovation in robotics research!

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