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ARA Lab would like to acknowledge supports from NSF, NASA, DOT, and UNR.

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Current Projects

Research Area 1: Automated Civil Infrastructure Inspection with Robotic Systems

Research Area 2:  Multi-Robot Cooperative Control and Learning

Research Area 3:  Deep Learning Framework for Robot Manipulators – Advanced Manufacturing

Research Area 4: SLAM and Security for Autonomous Systems

Research Area 5: . Development of Intelligent Wheelchair (iChair)

 

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Past Projects

Research at Rutgers University

Project 1. Development of Robotics Assisted Bridge Inspection Tool (RABIT).

Project 2. Development of Rehabilitation Robotic System for Bridge Deck Crack Detection and Healing

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Research at Oklahoma State University

Project 1: Distributed Sensing, Learning and Control in Mobile Sensor Networks

Project 2: Develop a Tracking Algorithm for the Low Accurate Model of the Radio Controlled Car Like Robot

Project 3: Robust Adaptive Control  for a Nonlinear Model of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC)

Project 4: Autonomous Cracks Detection and Complete Coverage Path Planning Using Mobile Robot

 

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Federal Grants

    42.US ARMY Contract No. TBD:

Hung M. La (PI): FUSE-NDE: A Prototype for NDE Fusion Software to Enhance Concrete Infrastructure Assessment. Department of Defense: The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Amount: $1,354,425. Duration: 3 years: October 2025- September 2028. Year 1: $200K. (Contract paper work in progress.)

    41. Langley Research Center:

Hung M. La (PI): Robot Gantry Climbing Demo. NASA Langley Research Center. Amount: $7,000. Duration: 2 months: July 2025- August 2025. This fund to cover the travel + perdiems and shipping cost for Dr. Jim La and his student, Kai Hart to demonstrate the climbing robots for Gantry (260ft tall) and Vacuum Sphere (100ft tall) inspection.

    40. JFE Steel (Japan) Contract No. 2500558:

Hung M. La (PI): Phase 1: Development of a Steel Structure Climbing Robot for Steel Manufacturing Plant Inspection. JFE Steel Corporation (Japan). Amount: $54,000. Duration: 1 year: July 2025- June 2026. (Potential for Phase 2 in 2026: $110K)

    39. NSF Grant No. OIA-2148788: Sub-award No. 24-52:

Hung M. La (PI): Collecting High-Fidelity Wildfire Data using Multi-Task Allocation in UAV Networks with Cooperative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning. NSF EPSCoR program. Amount: $30,000. Duration: 1 year: June 2025- May 2026.

    38. US-DOT Award # 69A3552348322:

Hung M. La (PI): AI-Driven Drone Technology for Bridge Displacement and Vibration
Monitoring (UNR-2025-2-03). U.S. Department of Transportation: University Transportation Centers
Program (Sub-award No. 000794 from Florida International University).
Amount: $65,000/year (Sub-award InfoEd No. 2300066).
Duration: Year 1: April 2025- March 2026.
UTC-ABC Tier 1 Transportation Center:
Total grant: $10M for 5 years for 6 Consortium Members (FIU, UNR, OU, UW, Texas A&M, UGA). $2M for UNR.

    37. US ARMY Contract No. W912HZ 24P0120:

Hung M. La (PI): Development of Camera ROS Driver and Data Processing for Integration with Robotic Systems. Department of Defense: The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Amount: $200,000. Duration: 2 years: September 2024- August 2026

    36. NASA Rapid Response Research Grant No. 24-2024 R3-0050:

Hung M. La (PI): RFA-078: Multi-altitude Guidance and Control System (SMD, STMD). NASA Rapid Response Research Cooperative Agreement Notice (R3-CAN). Amount: $100,000. Duration: 1 year: August 2024- July 2025.

    35. NASA Space Grant:

Parikshit Mani (PI), Hung M. La (Co-PI), and David Feil-Seifer (Co-PI), Rui Hu (SP), Ankita Shukla (SP): NVSCG: Robotics and AI Curriculum Development for Undergraduate and Graduate Students at UNR College of Engineering. Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Infrastructure. Amount: $50,000 included $25,000 (matching). Duration: 1 year: September 1, 2024- August 30, 2025.

    34. NSF-REU IIS Grant No. 2150394:

David Feil-Seifer (PI), Emily Hand (Co-PI), Hung M. La (SP), Monica Nicolescu (SP), Christos Papachristos (SP), et al.: REU Site: Collaborative Human-Robot Interaction for Robots in the Field. NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates. Amount: $415,000. Duration: 3 years: March 2022-February 2026

    33. US-DOT/OST-R Grant No. 69A3551747126. Sub-award No. 00055082-04E:

Hung M. La (PI): INSPIRE: Nondestructive Data-Driven Motion Planning for Inspection Robots. U.S. Department of Transportation: OST-R Grant. (Sub-award No. 00055082-04E from Missouri University of Science & Technology). Amount: $107,079. Duration: 2.5 years: July 2022- December 2024.

    32. US-DOT/OST-R Grant No. 69A3551747126. Sub-award No. 00055082-04D:

Hung M. La (PI): INSPIRE: Nondestructive Data Driven Motion Planning for Inspection Robots. U.S. Department of Transportation: OST-R Grant. (Sub-award No. 00055082-04D from Missouri University of Science & Technology). Amount: $107,079. Duration: 1 year: July 2021- June 2022.

    31. US-DOT/OST-R Grant No. 69A3551747126. Sub-award No. 00055082-04C:

Hung M. La (PI): INSPIRE: Nondestructive Data Driven Motion Planning for Inspection Robots. U.S. Department of Transportation: OST-R Grant. (Sub-award No. 00055082-04C from Missouri University of Science & Technology). Amount: $107,079. Duration: 1 year: January 2020- December 2020.

    30. NSF-PFI-TT Grant No. 1919127: (Supplement Funding)

Hung M. La (PI): PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation. NSF PFI-Partnerships for Innovation Program. Amount: $16,000 (REU Supplement). Awarded June 2023.

    29. NSF-PFI-TT Grant No. 1919127: (Supplement Funding)

Hung M. La (PI): PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation. NSF PFI-Partnerships for Innovation Program. Amount: $55,000 (REU Supplement). Awarded June 2022.

    28. NSF-PFI-TT Grant No. 1919127: (Supplement Funding)

Hung M. La (PI): PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation. NSF PFI-Partnerships for Innovation Program. Amount: $16,000 (REU Supplement). Awarded April 2022.

    27. NSF-PFI-TT Grant No. 1919127: (Supplement Funding)

Hung M. La (PI): PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation. NSF PFI-Partnerships for Innovation Program. Amount: $55,000 (REU Supplement). Awarded September 2020.

    26. NSF-PFI-TT Grant No. 1919127: (Supplement Funding)

Hung M. La (PI): PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation. NSF PFI-Partnerships for Innovation Program. Amount: $55,000 (REU Supplement). Awarded August 2020.

    25. NSF CAREER Award: IIS Grant No. 1846513: (Supplement Funding)

Hung M. La (PI): CAREER: Less Obstructive Vital Evaluation-inspection Robots for Bridges (BridgeLOVER). NSF Robust Intelligence: Faculty Early Career Development Program. Amount: $20,000 (REU Supplement). Awarded: April 2024.

    24. NASA Space Grant NNX15AI02H Sub-No. 18-54:

Tin Nguyen (PI), Hung M. La (Co-PI), and Lei Yang (Co-PI): NVSCG: Machine Learning and Applied Data Analytics Curriculum Development for UNR College of Engineering. Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Infrastructure. Amount: $50,000. Duration: 1 year: July 1, 2020- June 30, 2021.

    23. NSF-PFI-TT Grant No. 1919127:

Hung M. La (PI): PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation. NSF PFI-Partnerships for Innovation Program. Amount: $250,000. Duration: 5 years: August 2019- January 2025.

    22. NSF CAREER Award: IIS Grant No. 1846513: Total: $500K

Hung M. La (PI):CAREER: Less Obstructive Vital Evaluation-inspection Robots for Bridges (BridgeLOVER). NSF Robust Intelligence: Faculty Early Career Development Program. Amount: $500,000. Duration: 5 years: June 2019- May 2025.

    21. Industry Grant

Quori @ UNR: An Assistance, Collaboration, and Service Research Platform For Human-Robot Interaction In the Wild, 2019. Quori CRI Competitive Competition. $2,500 (equipment). co-PI: Monica Nicolescu, Kostas Alexis, Hung M. La, Alireza Tavakkoli, and Yantao Shen.

     20. US-DOT/OST-R Grant No. 69A3551747126. Sub-award No. 00055082-04B:

Hung M. La (PI): Climbing Robots with Automated Deployment of Sensors and NDE Devices for Steel Bridge Inspection (AS-2). U.S. Department of Transportation: OST-R Grant. (Sub-award No. 00055082-04B from Missouri University of Science & Technology). Amount: $107,079. Duration: 1 year: January 2019-December 2019.

  1. US-DOT/OST-R Grant No. 69A3551747126. Sub-award No. 00055082-04A:

Hung M. La (PI). Climbing Robots with Automated Deployment of Sensors and NDE Devices for Steel Bridge Inspection. U.S. Department of Transportation: OST-R Grant. (Sub-award No. 00055082-04A from Missouri University of Science & Technology). Amount: $53,540. Duration: 1 year: January 2018- December 2018.

  1. US-DOT/OST-R Grant No. 69A3551747126- Sub-award No. 00055082-04: :

Hung M. La (PI): Development of Climbing Robots for Efficient Steel Bridge Inspection. U.S. Department of Transportation: OST-R Grant. (Sub-award No. 00055082-04 from Missouri University of Science & Technology). Amount: $107,079. Duration: 1 year: November 2016- October 2017.

  1. NASA Rapid Response Research Grant No. 80NSSC19M0170:

Tin Nguyen (PI) and Hung M. La (Co-PI): Multi-cohort, Pathway-level Analysis of Spaceflight
Disorders. NASA Rapid Response Research Cooperative Agreement Notice (R3-CAN) NNH18ZHA005.
Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Amount: $100,000. Duration: 1 year: August 1, 2019- July 31, 2020.

  1. NASA Space Grant NNX15AI02H Sub-No. 20-16 &18-94:

Jun Zhang (PI) and Hung M. La (Co-PI): An Artificial Muscle-powered Versatile Robotic Grasper. Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Infrastructure. Amount: $49,000. Duration: 9 months: August 1, 2019- April 9, 2020.

  1. Industry Grant:

Hung M. La (SP): Machine Learning for Cardiac Signal Filtering. Olea Sensor Networks. Amount: $11,864. Duration: 3 months: June 2019- August 2019.

  1. Industry Grant:

David Feil-Seifer (PI), Adam Kirn (Co-PI), Hung M. La (SP), et al.: Robotics Academy of Nevada. Nevada Department of Education/Tesla. Amount: $225,000. Duration: 4 years: June 2019- June 2022.

  1. Industry Grant: Agreement No. SP-1800087:

Hung M. La (PI): Highly Accurate Image Processing for Concrete Images. Japan Nine Sigma, under Penta-Ocean Constructions Co., LTD. Amount: $149,980. Duration: 2.5 years: April 2019- December 2021.

  1. NASA Space Grant NNX15AI02H Sub-No. 19-21:

Hung M. La (PI): Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework for Robotic Manipulation. Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Infrastructure. Amount: $45,000. Duration: 8 months: September 1,
2018- April 9, 2019.

  1. NASA Seed RID Grant No. NNX15AK48A Sub-No. 19-29:

Hung M. La (PI), David Feil-Seifer (Co-PI): Leveraging human electrocardiogram signals for UAV security enhancement. Nevada NASA Seed Research Infrastructure Development. Amount: $50,000. Duration: 10 months: September 1, 2018- June 30, 2019.

  1. NASA Space Grant NNX15AI02H Sub-No. 18-54:

Hung M. La (PI), David Feil-Seifer (Co-PI), and Tin Nguyen (Co-PI): NVSCG: Robotics and Big Data Curriculum for Undergraduate and Graduate Students of UNR College of Engineering. Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Infrastructure. Amount: $50,000. Duration: 8 months: July 1, 2018- April 9, 2019.

  1. NSF-RET EEC Grant No. 1801727:

Kostas Alexis (PI), and Lei Yang (Co-PI), Hung M. La (SP), et al.: RET Site: Cross-disciplinary Research Experiences on Smart Cities for Nevada Teachers: Integrating Big Data into Robotics. NSF. Amount: $581,073. Duration: 3 years: Sept 2018- Aug 2022.

  1. NSF-REU IIS Grant No. 1757929:

David Feil-Seifer (PI), Shamik Sengupta (Co-PI), Hung M. La (SP), Monica Nicolescu (SP) and Kostas Alexis (SP): REU Site: Collaborative Human-Robot Interaction. NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates. Amount: $360,000. Duration: 3 years: Feb 2018- Jan 2020.

  1. NASA Space Grant No. NNX15AI02H Sub-No. 18-33:

Hung M. La (PI), David Feil-Seifer (Co-PI): Collaborative Control of Multiple UAVs for Wildfire Tracking and Monitoring. Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Infrastructure. Amount: $30,000. Duration: 10 months: July 2017- April 2018.

  1. NASA Seed RID Grant No. NNX15AI02H Sub-No. 17-36:

Hung M. La (PI), David Feil-Seifer (Co-PI) and Paul Oh (Co-PI at UNLV): UGV-UAV Hybrid System for Unstructured Environment Exploration. Nevada NASA Seed Research Infrastructure Development. Amount: $83,523. UNR portion $73,523. Duration: 1 year: September 2016- August 2017.

     5. Nevada NASA Space Consortium Grant No. NNX15AI02H:

Dave Feil-Seifer (PI), Hung M. La (Co-PI), Monica Nicolescu (co-PI), Logan Yliniemi (co-PI): Undergraduate and Graduate Robotics Curriculum for UNR College of Engineering. Nevada NASA Space Consortium. Amount: $76,568. Duration: 1 year: July 2016 – June 2017.

     4. NSF Grant: NSF-IIP-1639092

Hung M. La (PI). ICorps: Advanced 3D Software for Ground Penetrating Radars. NSF- Innovation Corps Program (ICorps). Amount: $50,000; 1.5 years: Apr. 2016- Sept. 2017.

     3. NSF Grant: NSF-IIP-1559942

M. La (PI). I-Corps Team: Drone and Robotic Systems for Civil Infrastructure Inspection and Environmental Monitoring. NSF- Innovation Corps Program (ICorps). Amount: $50,000; 11 months: Nov. 2015- Sept. 2016.

     2. NSF Grant: NSF-IIP-1535716

Hung M. La (PI). ICorps Team: Development and Commercialization of Bridge Inspection Robotic Systems. NSF- Innovation Corps Program (ICorps). Amount: $50,000; 6 months: Apr. 2015- Sept. 2015.

     1. NSF Grant: NSF-NRI-1426828

 Hung M. La (Co-PI), Jingang Yi (PI at Rutgers), Nenad Gucunski (Co-PI at Rutgers) and Dezhen Song (PI at Texas A&M). NRI: Collaborative: Minimally Invasive Robotic Non-Destructive Evaluation and Rehabilitation for Bridge Decks (Bridge-MINDER). NSF- National Robotics Initiative (NRI). Amount: $928,499; 4 years: Aug. 2014- August. 2019.