National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots | 18 518

Opportunity Information: Apply for 18 518

The National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots (NRI-2.0) is a U.S. government grant program led by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that funds fundamental robotics research aimed at speeding up the development and real-world adoption of collaborative robots, often called co-robots. These are robots designed to work beside people or directly with people, not in isolation. What makes NRI-2.0 distinct is its emphasis on "ubiquity," meaning co-robots should be able to blend into everyday settings and assist humans across many parts of life in a seamless, practical way rather than remaining limited to specialized labs or tightly controlled industrial environments.

The program organizes its research goals into four major thrusts. The first is scalability, which focuses on how co-robots can operate effectively at larger scale and in more complex situations. This includes enabling robots to collaborate with multiple humans or multiple robots at the same time, and improving a robot's ability to perceive, plan, act, and learn under real-world uncertainty. A key part of scalability is distributed operation, where sensing, decision-making, and coordination may be spread across devices, systems, or teams of robots. It also stresses safe, robust, and reliable operation in complex environments, reflecting the reality that ubiquitous robots must handle messy, dynamic spaces like homes, workplaces, farms, hospitals, warehouses, and public areas without introducing unacceptable safety risks or frequent failures.

The second thrust is customizability, centered on making co-robots easier to adapt to specific tasks, environments, and individual users. The goal is to reduce the amount of hardware redesign and software re-engineering needed when a robot moves from one setting to another, or from one user to another. This thrust also includes personalization, such as adapting to a user's preferences, abilities, or constraints. Another major element is natural communication and interaction, both verbal and non-verbal, so that people can instruct, collaborate with, and understand robots more intuitively. In practice, this thrust aligns with research in human-robot interaction, intent inference, adaptive interfaces, learning from demonstration, and multimodal communication that makes robot behavior legible and predictable to nearby humans.

The third thrust targets lowering barriers to entry, which is about making collaborative robotics more accessible to researchers, developers, educators, and eventual adopters. NRI-2.0 highlights open-source co-robot hardware and software and the creation of widely accessible testbeds. The idea is to reduce the cost and friction of getting started, improve reproducibility of research results, and speed up innovation by giving more groups the tools and platforms to build on prior work rather than reinventing core components. Testbeds can include shared physical facilities, standardized environments for evaluation, and platforms that allow different teams to compare approaches under similar conditions.

The fourth thrust is societal impact, which recognizes that making robots truly ubiquitous is not only a technical challenge. This area supports foundational work to establish and strengthen robotics education, infuse robotics concepts into curricula, and build clear education and training pathways that expand and diversify the robotics workforce. It also explicitly calls for research into the broader implications of widespread co-robots, including social, economic, ethical, and legal questions. That can include topics like trust, accountability, privacy, bias, labor impacts, safety standards, and how policies and regulations might need to evolve as robots increasingly share spaces and responsibilities with people.

NRI-2.0 encourages collaboration across academia, industry, non-profits, and other organizations to create stronger connections between foundational research and practical technology development, deployment, and use. This reflects an interest in moving beyond isolated breakthroughs toward systems and knowledge that can transition into real environments and inform product development, operational practices, and public understanding.

From the funding and administrative standpoint, this opportunity is a discretionary grant program in the science and technology research and development category. It was created on November 22, 2017, with an original closing date of February 20, 2018. The expected number of awards was around 60, with a maximum award size (ceiling) of $1,500,000. While NSF is the named agency, NRI-2.0 is explicitly described as a multi-agency effort supported by NSF along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Because multiple agencies participate, applicants are directed to coordinate questions about a project's fit, relevance, or direction with the appropriate agency point of contact listed in the solicitation. The opportunity is associated with multiple CFDA numbers, reflecting its cross-agency structure and the range of research areas it can cover.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.310, 12.800, 47.041, 47.070, 47.075, 47.076, 81.049, 81.104.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 22, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 20, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 60 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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