Integrated Modeling and Planning for On-Orbit Assembly of Large Space Structures with Mobile Crawling Robots
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Large-scale space structures have taken center stage as the future of space exploration, paving the way for ambitious endeavors like sprawling solar power stations, intricate telescopes, and giant space stations. This program lies not in manual assembly, but in empowering space robots to autonomously build these structures through plans provided by dedicated on-orbit assembly planning algorithms.In this paper we describe an approach to large-scale space structures assembly frameworks, while keeping in mind the many benefits associated to the usage of autonomous crawling mobile robots. We thus describe an assembly approach and model on which we are developing our research. Initially, all the building elements (beams and nodes) are stored in the payload fairing. These are deployed bit by bit building the structure on which the robots themselves will evolve until reaching the final configuration. We represent the assembling problem as an automated planning instance, where several structural constraints dictate the actions available for execution. The automated planner algorithm provides the steps used to achieve the final, deployed structure. We implemented a first version of the planner that provides an assembly plan, i.e. a sequence of actions to move the elements from the payload fairing to the deployed structure. This solution plan respects all the geometrical an physical constraints because these have been embedded in the planner. This model helps to illustrate the feasibility of the approach and the benefits of having AI tools for autonomous assembling robots in space.
Source: HAL
Authors: Albore, Alexandre, Rognant, Mathieu
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4406779174