The Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) has selected UWM’s Mohammad “Habib” Rahman as a 2022-2023 Research Infrastructure Program Grant award recipient, the fourth year the NASA-funded program has supported his robotics research or teaching.
Rahman is a Richard and Joanne Grigg Professor and associate professor, biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, at UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science.
In April, the WSGC awarded Rahman a $10,000 grant with a match commitment of $10,000 for a one-year project that continues his investigation into creating an intelligent system for robot object manipulation.
His goal, he says, is to devise a means for multiple robots to work as a team that handles and manipulates large, heavy objects.
The research is being conducted for Mars exploration. Closer to home, potential applications include handling biohazardous material at hospitals and manipulation of large objects in industries and mines.
Rahman’s bio-robotics research supported by WSGC
Rahman is an expert in bio-robotics, including human-assist robots, service robots, mobile robots, medical robots, rehabilitation robotics, and exoskeleton robots for rehabilitation and motion assistance.
In 2020, he received a $10,000 WSGC Higher Education Incentives award to create a UWM course that introduced undergraduate and graduate students to mobile robot coordination. The course, Introducing Mobile Robots Coordination Control, began enrolling students in Spring 2021.
Also in 2020, the WSGC awarded Rahman a Research Infrastructure Program grant of $10,000 for his project Coordination Control and Obstacle Avoidance for a Team of Mobile Robots in Dynamic Environment. WSGC began supporting Rahman in 2019 with a $10,000 grant that laid the groundwork for his current investigation into creating an intelligent system for robot object manipulation.