12/09/20 National Safety Council Washington, DC — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is providing $1.5 million for research aimed at reducing occupational hazards in health care and manufacturing via the development and use of collaborative robots, or “cobots.” According to a Nov. 16 press release, NIOSH and the National Science Foundation are funding separate research projects at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Illinois at Chicago through the NSF National Robotics Initiative 2.0. The goal of the initiative is to accelerate the development and use of cobots – “an emerging robotic technology that complements, not replaces, human workers” – to enhance workplace safety.