Dr. Islam Receives NASA-Funded Grant to Advance Space Robotics Research, Leading UWGB’s Robotics Research and Teaching.

Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Md “Rasedul” Islam has been selected as a 2024-2025 Early-Stage Investigator Grant award recipient, funded by NASA through the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC), to support his robotics research. The selection process is highly competitive, engaging a statewide pool of applicants and awarding only one recipient in this category.

This $11,064 federal grant will fund Professor Islam’s space robotics research project, “A Computational Tool Enabling On-Site Customization of Robotic Manipulators in Space Missions through Dynamic Analysis,” for one year. Space missions frequently encounter unforeseen challenges or tasks that demand the rapid deployment of robotic manipulators. Given the dynamic nature, evolving priorities, and extraterrestrial environments of such missions, the need for on-site built robotic manipulators becomes apparent. The successful completion of this project will empower astronauts to swiftly customize designs and analyze manipulator dynamics in real-time, facilitating the construction of on-site manipulators and adaptive problem-solving to meet mission objectives.