Round 2 of ARM Fellowship Program Released

The ARM Institute has opened applications for our Fellowship Program in support of the AIM Higher Consortium. AIM Higher is led by Catalyst Connection with over 30 academic, economic development, technology institute, and manufacturing partners from around the region. The Program is funded by the Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (DoD-OLDCC). The AIM Higher Consortium will directly support DoD-OLDCC’s mission to enhance the readiness, resiliency, and innovation of the national defense manufacturing supply chain. This is a regional effort and the Fellow’s organization must have a physical presence within the Pittsburgh-West Virginia OEA.  

The ARM Institute will award up to $60,000 per fellow. The fellowship is an individual award. The winning fellow must be an individual employed by a legal entity. There is a project component to this Fellowship, which is further detailed in the RFP.

This application is for our second round of fellow selections. In May, the ARM Institute named Dr. Jared Glover from CapSen Robotics as our first Fellow for his project titled “Autonomous Robot Workspace Modeling with an Arm-Mounted 3D Camera.”  

The goal of that project is to increase the adoption of robotics by SMMs by addressing 3 reasons for the slow adoption of advanced robotics in SMMs.  Among them are: 

1.            High cost of robot integration

2.            Scarcity of high volume tasks presenting good ROI justification for automation

3.            Difficulty repurposing advanced robots for new tasks

The goal of “Autonomous Robot Workspace Modeling with an Arm-Mounted 3D Camera” is to address all three of these underlying causes for slow adoption among SMMs by lowering the cost (and time) of robot integration and by making it easier for users to deploy robots in high-mix, low-volume applications and to move the robot around to new work-cell locations in a factory.

The ARM Institute is soliciting fellowship proposals that respond to specific needs of the AIM Higher Consortium and the Department of Defense. This includes advanced manufacturing projects tied to the DoD that are aligned with ARM’s goals of advancing robotics and AI in manufacturing in industries such as aerospace, automotive, space, general manufacturing, and more. The project call complements the strategic goals and mission of the ARM Institute. Submit your application here.

Please reach out to fellows@arminstitute.org with any questions.

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