Connect-R: industrial-scale self-building modular robotics

有许多恶劣的工作环境需要执行复杂的任务，例如建造建筑物和部署工具，涉及的任何体力劳动者的健康和安全都会面临重大风险，部署成本很高，完成工作的时间也很长。例如核退役、石油和天然气、采矿和空间系统。其中许多环境的共同之处是有效部署替代人类的食道化设备的难度极大。这些环境带来了以下挑战：危险的工作环境需要保护设备，操作时间窗口有限部署系统的通道有限存在防止占用的不稳定结构举起需要机械辅助的重物(~50公斤)处理大量液体(1000升)Connect-R团队是一个由中小企业、大型企业、正在开发一种工业规模的自建模块化机器人解决方案，以提供进入这些危险环境中工作地点的通道。博士生(S)有机会参与该项目的许多方面，从执行器模块的设计和制造，到任务规划和功能分解。

There are many hostile working environments that require sophisticated tasks to be performed, such as the building ofstructures and deployment of tools where there is significant risk to the health and safety of any manual workers involved,high cost of deployment and significant timescales for completion. Examples are Nuclear Decommissioning, Oil and Gas,Mining and Space systems. Common to many of these environments is the extreme difficulty of effective deployment of thesophisticated kind of equipment that replaces human beings.These environments present the following challenges:Hazardous working environments requiring protective equipment and limited time windows for operationLimited access through which to deploy the systemsUnstable structures present that prevent occupationLifting of heavy objects (~50kg) that require mechanical assistanceProcessing of large volumes of liquids (1000s litres)The Connect-R team are a collaborative group of SME, large enterprise, and academics who are developing an industrial-scale self-building modular robotic solution to provide access to work-sites in these hazardous environments.There is scope for the PhD candidate(s) to be involved in many aspects of the project, ranging from design and build of the actuator modules, to task planning and functional decomposition.