A systems-level modular design approach to field robotics

Long development times and high costs prevent robots from being practical for use in many important field missions. Here a modular design approach is proposed to produce a rapidly deployable low cost field robotic system. An inventory of components such as actuated joints, links, power supplies, and software modules are assembled to produce a field robotic system for a specified task. The proposed design method uses a hierarchical selection process combined with a genetic algorithm to select a robot configuration and action plan for a given task. This method is applied to an inspection task required for the preservation of the USS Constitution, an historic naval ship.