Coordinated part delivery using distributed planning

Abstract

In this thesis, we develop a distributed mobile robot platform to deliver parts around a model construction site. The platform's robots, specialized into delivery robots and assembly robots, use a distributed coverage algorithm to determine where parts should be delivered. The robots consist of a mobility platform (iRobot iCreate), a manipulation platform (Crustcrawler arm), and an IR communication system to enable recognition and grasping of parts. To control the robot hardware, we implemented software in Java. The delivery robots use IR communication to find parts at a supply station. After communicating over UDP multicast with assembly station robots, the delivery robots deliver parts to the assembly robots based on their coverage control algorithm. To evaluate the algorithm, we constructed a hardware system of 4 robots, connected to a VICON motion capture system for localization. We discuss the results of successful hardware and software testing of the system as a method of delivering parts around a construction site, and we discuss future plans to use the platform to assemble parts once delivered.