Safety-Aware Optimal Scheduling for Autonomous Masonry Construction using Collaborative Heterogeneous Aerial Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a safety-aware, optimal scheduling framework for autonomous masonry construction using heterogeneous aerial robots, effectively managing deadlines, dependencies, and safety constraints to improve efficiency and structural integrity.

Contribution

It presents a novel high-level task planning and coordination method that accounts for curing deadlines, structural dependencies, and safety constraints in aerial masonry construction.

Findings

Successfully coordinated UAV operations in simulation

Reduced construction makespan and logistics

Ensured safety and structural integrity during tasks

Abstract

This paper presents a novel high-level task planning and optimal coordination framework for autonomous masonry construction, using a team of heterogeneous aerial robotic workers, consisting of agents with separate skills for brick placement and mortar application. This introduces new challenges in scheduling and coordination, particularly due to the mortar curing deadline required for structural bonding and ensuring the safety constraints among UAVs operating in parallel. To address this, an automated pipeline generates the wall construction plan based on the available bricks while identifying static structural dependencies and potential conflicts for safe operation. The proposed framework optimizes UAV task allocation and execution timing by incorporating dynamically coupled precedence deadline constraints that account for the curing process and static structural dependency constraints, while enforcing spatio-temporal constraints to prevent collisions and ensure safety. The primary objective of the scheduler is to minimize the overall construction makespan while minimizing logistics, traveling time between tasks, and the curing time to maintain both adhesion quality and safe workspace separation. The effectiveness of the proposed method in achieving coordinated and time-efficient aerial masonry construction is extensively validated through Gazebo simulated missions. The results demonstrate the framework's capability to streamline UAV operations, ensuring both structural integrity and safety during the construction process.