Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM), a national consortium dedicated to U.S. leadership in manufacturing through robotics and workforce innovation, has awarded $1.4 million in funding to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for a project on advanced robotics. Robot assembly. Courtesy of RPI. The RPI project, which also received matching funds from the New York State Empire State Development Division on Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR) will develop an operator-guided, semi-automatic assembly process using industrial robots integrated with multiple sensors. The RPI team aims to develop a fixture-less robotic assembly system that will decrease the process cycle time, decrease process setup cost, improve alignment precision, and simplify the process design by incorporating vision and force feedback. The project will not only affect composites manufacturing, but also be applicable to the aerospace, automotive, heavy, and textile industries, which could involve manipulation of large, heavy, and flexible component parts. “Our students are gaining valuable experience from working with industrial professionals and the exposure to real-world needs and requirements,” said Professor John Wen, principle investigator of the research, and head of industrial and systems engineering at RPI.