Computer Vision- and Human-Robot Interaction-Supported Assembly for Collaborative Off-Earth Habitat Construction

Rhizome 1.0 and 2.0 are European Space Agency (ESA) co-funded projects that have been implemented with a team from the Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, and Aerospace Engineering Faculties, TU Delft, and various industrial partners. The focus is on the development of a Martian habitat using 3D-printed components and in situ resource utilization. This paper presents a new multi-modal method developed for the collaborative assembly of building components with the support of Computer Vision (CV) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) using compliant robotic collaborative manipulators. The building components are Voronoi-based and are fabricated using Design-to-Robotic-Production and -Assembly (D2RP&A). During the collaborative assembly, the robot uses CV to detect the fabricated component and generate autonomous actions to perform the pick-and-place movement. Between the autonomous robot actions, HRI is used by the human to physically guide the robot when grasping and positioning. To evaluate the proposed method, lab experiments were conducted using robotically milled mock-up components from Styrofoam, which were assembled with a collaborative robotic arm. The results indicate that robots can assist humans during the assembly process to implement tasks that are beyond their physical abilities, while robots benefit from human cognitive capabilities during more complex actions.