The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make funding available to study collaborative robots (co-robots) in the workplace.

The NSF is calling for proposals for their National Robotics Initiative 2.0 (NRI 2.0) which will build on the original program and support research to accelerate the development and use of co-robots. These robots are intended to work with people or other robots, and with this initiative NIOSH hopes to fund research on using co-robots for reducing workplace risk exposures, and identifying potential risks of co-robots and workers, and evaluating control strategies to protect workers. Industry sectors which are likely to utilize these co-robots are agriculture, construction, healthcare and mining.

NIOSH’s Center for Occupational Robotics Research works across industrial sectors to guide the development and use of occupational robots that enhance workers’ safety, health and well-being. The research looks at traditional industrial robots, like those that work away from human workers, and new technologies like these co-robots, as well as wearable robotics and remote controlled or autonomous vehicles and drones, and future robots using artificial intelligence.

The deadline for those interested in submitting proposals is February 26, 2020.

Read more from NIOSH here.