Geometry and Domain Modelling for Construction Robots

Construction robots operate in an environment very different from that of manufacturing robots. This environment is less structured, more complex and more dynamic than is the norm in manufacturing. In addition, construction robots are inherently mobile, as they are engaged in building or maintaining an immobile structure which is large compared to their dimensions. Another complicating factor is the uniqueness of actions that must he taken by a construction robot: the number of special conditions that may exist in buildings is large. All of diese differences provide arguments for two related capabilities that arc required of construction robots: the ability to reason about and to model their environment. In diis paper we present current work at Carnegie-Mellon University which addresses the problems of geometrie reasoning and domain modelling in the specific context of knowledge based expert systems.