Multi-Agent System of Car-Like Manipulators for Construction Operations in Dynamic Environments
Abstract
The construction industry faces critical challenges today, including labour shortages, worker safety concerns and project delays. Adopting robotic automation, particularly in dynamic settings, has emerged as a viable solution to addressing these issues. This paper presents a new multi-agent system of four-arm car-like mobile manipulators designed to address these issues by automating labour-intensive tasks, enhancing safety and boosting productivity. Each manipulator combines the functionality of robotic arms with the mobility of an autonomous car-like vehicle, ensuring the homogeneous system can perform a range of tasks from material handling to complex assembly operations autonomously in dynamic environments. The core innovation of this research is the design of continuous acceleration-based controllers for these mobile manipulators using the Lyapunov-based control scheme (LbCS), which is a new application for a multi-agent system of four-arm car-like robots, providing a means to achieve higher levels of flexibility. The effectiveness of these controllers and the overall system performance have been validated through computer simulations, demonstrating the system's capability for executing complex tasks within a multi-agent network. This study lays the groundwork for transformative advancements in the construction industry through multi-agent robotic automation, with implications for enhanced operational efficiency and worker safety while providing a promising solution for addressing shortages in labour-intensive sectors.