Autonomous Robotic Disassembly in the Blocks World

Abstract

This article describes a fully functional autonomous system with two cooperating robots that disassembles complex Duplo 1 structures in a restricted environment. The system operates on a table-top world with any number of Duplo structures for which object models have been given. The structures are dis assembled down to individual parts, using basic operations of single part removal, object partitioning, and the addition of stabilizing supports to structures that would otherwise fall over. All aspects are automatically planned, including operation selection, path and grasp planning, and simultaneous cooper ative robot motion. Operations are chosen so as to not create unstable structures and to not risk breakage in areas of low structural integrity. Overall planning is done with a process mechanism that heuristically generates efficient disassembly sequences, without searching a space of all possible operations. Several examples of actual system operation, using real robots, are presented.