Task Encoding for Autonomous Machines: The Assembly Problem

Assembly problems require that a robotic system with fewer actuated degrees of freedom manipulate an environment with a greater number of unactuated degrees of freedom. This paper explores the possibilities of combining a navigation plan for an “animated” version of the environment with a juggling plan that mediates between the conflicting subgoals of that unconstrained world. The hope is to develop a formalism for constructing globally stabilizing feedback controllers for the nonholonomically constrained dynamical systems that represent the underlying problem. Disciplines Electrical and Computer Engineering | Engineering | Systems Engineering Comments Reprinted from SixthYale Workshop on Adaptive and Learning Systems, August 1990. NOTE: At the time of publication, author Daniel Koditschek was affiliated with Yale University. Currently, he is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. This conference paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/ese_papers/675