The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has announced three grants to the value of $3 million to advance the use of robots that work alongside or cooperatively with people, in order to benefit and assist stakeholders in America’s production agriculture field.
These three grants are part of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), a federal research partnership that includes NIFA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Defense, and Department of Energy.
This program aims to develop the next generation of robotics, advance the capability and usability of such systems and artifacts, and to encourage existing and new communities to focus on innovative application areas.