An Autonomous Task Assignment Paradigm for Autonomous Robotic In-Space Assembly

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2022-02-25
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Frontiers
Abstract

The development of autonomous robotic systems is a key component in the expansion of space exploration and the development of infrastructures for in-space applications. An important capability for these robotic systems is the ability to maintain and repair structures in the absence of human input by autonomously generating valid task sequences and task to robot allocations. To this end, a novel stochastic problem formulation paired with a mixed integer programming assembly schedule generator has been developed to articulate the elements, constraints, and state of an assembly project and solve for an optimal assembly schedule. The developed formulations were tested with a set of hardware experiments that included generating an optimal schedule for an assembly and rescheduling during an assembly to plan a repair. This formulation and validation work provides a path forward for future research in the development of an autonomous system capable of building and maintaining in-space infrastructures.

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Keywords
autonomous robotic assembly, in-space assembly, markov decision process, mixed integer programming, stochastic assembly environment, task allocation, task sequencing, 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
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