Local heuristics analysis in the automatic computation of assembly sequences for building structures with multiple aerial robots

Abstract

This paper deals with the automatic computation of the assembly sequence for building truss structures from their 3D geometrical analysis. This functionality is part of the autonomous planning architecture of a team of aerial robots equipped with on-board robotic arms. The mission of the team is the construction of a structure in places where the access is difficult by conventional means. The assembly sequence is computed by applying the well known “assembly-by-disassembly” technique to the Non-Directional Blocking Graphs (NDBG) obtained from the geometrical analysis of the structure. In this paper two novel local heuristics are presented to solve the assembly problem: the former is based on the number of free nodes in the graphs and the latter is related to the size of the resulting connected subgraphs when each disconnection is applied to a set of parts. Both techniques are designed to compute the assembly sequence that allows to parallelize the building process of the structure if enough robots are available. Simulation results as well as experimental results with an aerial robot are presented in the paper.