Cooperative Robots for Construction — Material Handling and Stigmergic Methods

• Autores: Majd Kassawat
• Directores de la Tesis: Ángel Pascual del Pobil y Ferré (dir. tes.), Enric Cervera Mateu (codir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Jaume I ( España ) en 2026
• Idioma: inglés
• Número de páginas: 126
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Nicolás Manuel García Aracil (presid.), Inmaculada Remolar Quintana (secret.), Fabio Bonsignorio (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Informática por la Universidad Jaume I de Castellón
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• Resumen

  • Autonomous robotic systems are poised to transform the construction industry by enabling teams of mobile robots to collaborate on material handling and assembly tasks. This dissertation advances the state of the art in cooperative mobile robotics for construction through an integrated exploration of hardware development, control architecture, simulation, and experimental validation. We design and implement a novel omnidirectional robot platform with a modular design and a friction-based lifting mechanism, allowing multiple robots to jointly lift and transport building materials without the need for complex grippers. Using this platform, a distributed control architecture orchestrates multi-robot coordination, and we systematically evaluate how key parameters – including robot mass, movement speed, team size, and task allocation strategy – impact the efficiency of both individual and cooperative operations. In parallel, drawing inspiration from social insects, we investigate stigmergic construction methods as a decentralized approach to multi-robot assembly. Using a custom lightweight simulator and high-fidelity ARGoS simulations, we develop and assess rule-based strategies in which robots coordinate indirectly by modifying their environment. These experiments demonstrate that simple local interaction rules can give rise to complex emergent structures. We also introduce a gripper tool design for block manipulation to bridge the gap between simulation and physical implementation of stigmergic building. Overall, the results validate the feasibility of employing cooperative robots for both shared-load material handling and decentralized construction. This work provides new insights into the design of multi-robot platforms and control frameworks for the construction domain, and it outlines practical guidelines to inform future robotic construction systems.