DOD Announces Intent to Fund New $80M Robotics-Focused MII

The Department of Defense’s Army Contracting Command released a new federal funding opportunity (FFO) to establish and sustain a Robots in Manufacturing Environments Manufacturing Innovation Institute (RIME-MII) to increase U.S. competitiveness in robotics applied primarily in manufacturing environments. The intent of the new $80 million RIME-MII is to:

• Enourage the development and scale-up for commercialization of critical enabling technologies such as: human-robot/robot-robot collaboration; perception and sensing; robot control to include adaptation, learning, and repurposing; autonomy and mobility; and dexterous manipulation;
• Establish common standards and testing protocols allowing the integration of multiple robotics technologies;
• Create a robotic technology-solution repository (to include modelling tools, databases, catalog of technology demonstrations and concept sharing mechanisms); and,
• Provide workforce training and education programs to ensure the U.S. workforce can effectively utilize and collaborate with robots in a broad spectrum of manufacturing environments.

Lead institutions’ eligibility are restricted to institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations, and the lead institution is encouraged to partner with other entities (e.g., government and for-profit organizations). Proposals are due November 18. Read the FFO…