NSF Engineering Research Center for Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing Moving Evolution to Revolution (HAMMER)

The full proposal details the proposed activities by the ERC Center, which is hosted by the Ohio State University. The Northwestern team will initially consist of Profs. Jian Cao, Wei Chen, Kornel Ehmann, Bruce Carruthers and Ping Guo, and expect to add one or two more faculty as HAMMER advances to year 3. Specifically, the PIs and their research teams will perform the following work: Jian Cao will lead the research effort of HAMMER by being the Director of Research and will participate in all four research thrusts. Wei Chen will lead Research Thrust 1 Design. Bruce Carruthers will participate in Research Thrust 1 Design. Ping Guo will participate in Research Thrust 2 Process Convergence and lead the ERC’s Manufacturing Innovation Learning Laboratory here at Northwestern. Kornel Ehmann will participate in Research Thrust 4 Control, Intelligence and Autonomy. All NU members will participate in the education and outreach programs, such as the Research Experience for Undergraduates and the Research Experience for Teachers programs. The team will actively work with external industrial collaborators and non-for-profit organizations who are members of HAMMER.