Adaptation to robot failures and shape change in decentralized construction

Abstract

Our prior work [1] presented a decentralized algorithm for coordinating the construction of a truss structure out of multiple components. In this paper, we discuss adaptation in decentralized construction. We partition construction in two tasks, tool delivery and assembly. Each task is performed by a networked team of specialized robots. We analyze the performance of the algorithms using the balls into bins problem, and show their adaptation to failure of robots, dynamic constraints, multiple types of elements and reconfiguration. The algorithms can be used for general types of source elements.