CSU Researchers Awarded Grants Totaling $1 Million from National Science Foundation to Develop Cyber-Enabled Exercise Machines and Investigate Potential for More Efficient Industrial Robots through Energy Regeneration

Cleveland State University researchers were recently awarded two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants totaling $1 million: a four-year $800,000 grant from NSF Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) to develop and field-test two prototype cyber-enabled exercise machines (CEEMs) and a three-year $200,000 grant from NSF Sensors, Dynamics and Controls (SDC) to fund research into the design, control and optimization of energy-regenerating robots.

Unlike existing exercise machines, the proposed CEEMs will measure and process biomechanical variables and generate adjustments to their own resistance, providing users with cues that will ultimately maximize effectiveness and guarantee safety. The machines will be reconfigurable by software, permitting a wide range of exercises with the same hardware.

Researchers Hanz Richter, Ph.D., Dan Simon Ph.D., and Antonie van den Bogert, Ph.D., of CSU’s Washkewicz College of Engineering, and Kenneth E. Sparks, Ph.D., of the College of Education and Human Services, will develop and field-test the machines on CSU student-athletes. They seek to produce foundational research to help invent other machines that will adapt towards optimal exercise and guide users, including machines with purposes beyond athletic conditioning.

- See more at: http://www.csuohio.edu/news/csu-researchers-awarded-nsf-grants-totaling-...