3-Dimensional Tiling for Distributed Assembly by Robot Teams

We consider the assembly of a three dimensional (3D) structure by a team of heterogeneous robots capable of online sensing and error correction during the assembly process. The automated assembly problem is posed as a general 3D tiling problem where the assembly components/tiles consist of various shapes and sizes. For a desired 3D structure, we first compute the partition of the assembly strategy into N c sub-components that can be executed in parallel by a team of N c assembly robots. To enable online error detection and correction during the assembly process, mobile robots equipped with visual depth sensors are tasked to scan, identify, and track the state of the structure. The objective is to enable online detection of missing assembly components and reassignment of these components to the team of assembly robots. We present the development of the planning, sensing, and control strategies employed and report on the experimental validation of these strategies using our multi-robot testbed.

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