Astrobotics: Swarm Robotics for Astrophysical Studies

Abstract

This article introduces the emerging field of astrobotics, a branch of robotics recently established to be of service to astrophysics and observational astronomy. We describe a modern requirement of dark matter studies, i.e., the generation of a map of the observable universe, using astrobots. Astrobots differ from conventional two-degreesof-freedom (DoF) robotic manipulators in two respects. First, the dense formation of astrobots gives rise to the extremely overlapping dynamics of neighboring peers, which makes the devices severely subject to collisions. Second, the structure of astrobots and their mechanical specifications are specialized due to the embedded optical fibers passing through them.