NJIT, with $5M from the NSF, Will Develop Robotic System to Speed Disaster Recovery

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has been awarded a cooperative agreement worth $5 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop a self-assembling robotic conveyor system to improve the rebuilding of infrastructure, particularly after disasters.

Inspired by the behavior of biological systems used by slime molds and army ants, the automated apparatus is designed to reach affected areas over difficult terrain that people and heavy equipment often struggle to navigate. The goal is to make clean-up and recovery faster, safer, more cost efficient and adaptable to each situation.

“We want to bring the high-tech automation of distribution facilities and smart warehouses to messy, unstructured outdoor environments,” said Petras Swissler, an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at NJIT and the project’s principal investigator.

Swissler pointed to the laborious and protracted recovery after Hurricane Helene in 2024, which caused billions of dollars in direct property damage and several times that amount in economic losses. It took responders days to reach residents in mountainous regions of North Carolina and Tennessee. Debris-strewn and washed-out roads remained impassable for weeks in some areas.

Helping responders and contractors 

“One of the most impactful things we can do is to speed up recoveries,” he said. “Once assembled, our system would begin right away to help responders move debris from a damaged site. In rebuilding, it would transport supplies, such as loads of bricks, from places where they can be safely unloaded to where they are needed most by first responders. It does so completely autonomously.”

The structure, composed of a swarm of flat metal tiles, can disassemble and reform as terrain and logistics change; the tiles pick themselves up and move themselves around. Algorithms that were developed in an earlier phase of the project guide their assembly. Wheels and treads on the surface of the tiles move pallets around the site. 

The NSF award – among the largest ever awarded to NJIT – flows from its Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. The project will span three years. Prior to this award, NJIT received an initial grant of $650,000 to develop a prototype. The goal of the latest Phase 2 funding is to develop a commercially viable product. 

Gaining efficiency

The researchers consulted with police officers, emergency responders, contractors and major construction companies about their needs. Uniformly, they stressed the difficulty of delivering supplies to disaster areas and hauling away debris. 

“Each community faces different challenges, leading them to spend even more on disaster relief and recovery,” said Semiha Ergan, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Urban and Engineering of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering and a co-principal investigator.

The researchers believe the system can also assist at construction sites more generally. Pickup trucks, they note, have limited capability in interior spaces, don’t perform well in mud and can be unsafe on lots where workers are moving around. People are also limited in what they can carry and risk injuries from accidents and repetitive work.

Efficiency gains in the construction sector have lagged significantly behind others. The researchers point to the “automation gap” as a primary factor.

Their research is multidisciplinary, spanning engineering, biology and mathematics, and involves three universities: NJIT, NYU and The University of Scranton. 

Army ants and slime molds

Observations of biological systems that are expert at moving resources across difficult terrain were central to the robotic system’s conception.

“Species such as army ants can link their bodies together to form bridges and scaffolding to move food over uneven and slippery ground,” noted Simon Garnier, a professor of biology at NJIT and one of the project’s co-principal investigators. “Slime molds, which are giant single cells, can grow over almost any substrate and build networks of superhighways that efficiently move nutrients around from where they are captured to where they are needed.”

NJIT’s partners work on the system’s algorithms and user interface and provide expertise on incorporating technology into worksites.

The other co-principal investigators are Maurizio Porfiri, an institute professor at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering and director of the university’s Center for Urban Science + Progress, and Jason Graham, a professor in The University of Scranton’s Department of Mathematics.