| abstract
| - The predominate concept behind the design of the telerobots used for Avalon’s telerobotic pre-settlement is one common to most of the phases of TMP. Min-A-Max; maximum diversity of use/application from a minimum diversity of components/elements. In fact, one could call this one of the key cultural precepts of TMP. However, with robots this becomes a significant challenge due to their physical and topological complexity combined with a need for very high compactness, compared to such things as architecture. Two technologies, likely to be particular engineering obsessions of Asgard MUOL and MUOF development, may prove critical to achieving Min-A-Max with Avalon robotics; SmartSocket and TouchPlate interfacing. SmartSockets are quick-connect/release socket elements that provide strong rigid mechanical attachment with one or more kinds of power, data, and thermal bus connection. They may ultimately include powered locking mechanisms, allowing sockets to engage and release themselves under computer control. This will be important for the development of sophisticated space frame structures that can be quickly robot-assembled on-orbit and for the use of one of the key forms of orbital service robots; the InchWorm robot arm. TouchPlates are interfaces that provide power, data, and thermal communication without the need for a high friction mechanical connection, such as tongue-in-groove alloy connectors common to electronics connectors and screw ring hose connections common to fluid systems. This is a key feature of the MUOL service backplane technology, intended to isolate failures in the bus to individual modules so that they do no propagate through the station, as is often the case with power overloads and shorts. These technologies would be very important to minimizing the complexity of component interfacing in Avalon robots, facilitating the ease with which robots of relatively simple manipulative abilities, compounded by telecommunications latency, could repair and assemble other robots using largely self contained components. Avalon robots would not likely be based on a single universal multi-purpose design. Rather, they would be based on several ‘families’ of different scale intended for different ranges of use and defined primarily by series of ‘chassis’ for mobile robots and ‘backplanes’ for stationary robots that accommodate many applications through different combinations of parts within that family. The families would share common interface standards across them and many common components. Other components, however, would be more specific to the scale of a particular family, potentially usable with parts of larger, but not always smaller, scale. One might wonder why such a project would not propose the use of modular or fractal-modular robotics platforms based on a single small universal modular unit in order to facilitate the Min-A-Max ideal. Certainly, this would seem the ideal form for shipping across space. It’s likely that much of the technology associated with these experimental robotics platforms will be incorporated in one way or another into Avalon development. The Self-Assembling Space Frame structure is a good demonstration of this. But the very high/long use rate and high power/torque of motive functions in Avalon robots –especially for those traveling great distances like vehicles or doing mining activities- demands more resilience than the functional generalism of single-module platforms may be capable of. Clearly, these platforms are not intended for situations where a single module is doing a single task perpetually. They are intended more for high-flexibility intermittent use where a system is changing its shape and function frequently. And so much more specialized and ruggedized components become necessary for these longer tougher duties. This does not preclude hybridization with other component systems. This author, however, sees a chassis/backplane-specific design approach as more likely owing to the great resilience demanded by these hard surface environments and continuous operation. So the typical Avalon robot would break down into several basic types of modules; chassis, backplane, power systems, drive units, actuators/tools, sensors, controllers, communications, and ‘accessories’. (ie, lights, visual status displays, bumpers, shield plates, tow hooks, racks, fences/panels, reinforcement struts and plates, etc.) Chassis and backplanes would define the basic form factors within a family. A chassis is a unified structure intended to host self-mobile robots. A backplane is a stationary structural system intended to support stationary processing ‘lines’ and integrating with other structural systems, such as architectural space frames. Self-mobile robots will be the dominant form early in the telerobotic outpost phase. Stationary robots will become more common with the establishment of excavated facilities and the development of sheltered factory complexes. Though mobile and stationary robots would seem to be very different, this author imagines a convergence in their design though the concept of the ‘breadboard panel’ as a primary component attachment structure and space frames as a supporting structure. The basic function of both chassis and backplane are the same; to provide both a physical attachment for other modules and a communications bus for power, data, and sometimes heat and hydraulic power. This can be simply accommodated with a rigid alloy panel using a standardized grid of SmartSocket interfaces having an appearance akin to the ‘breadboards’ used by electronics and photonics engineers. Using this common method of attachment, we arrive at a very similar approach to design and assembly for both stationary and mobile robots based on this same breadboard attachment surface. The basic backplane module would consist of a breadboard that attaches to other backplane modules and to stationary support structures such as a space frame. It’s family series would be defined by the scale and geometry of the frame structures supporting these panels. For the chassis, the breadboard is folded into a sandwich of two horizontal breadboards linked by smaller vertical breadboard panels which host more compact components within its volume. (most likely in a radial arrangement around a central interior interface) Drive and actuator components attach to the surface outside surfaces of the breadboard. Secondary space frame components (possibly hosting additional backplane breadboard panels) likewise retrofit to the chassis, which serves as the core structural element. Thus we arrive at a basic common architecture for supporting a huge assortment of components designed around this common interface standard and intended for easy robotic assembly. Let’s now look at some of the likely robot families of the Avalon telerobotic settlement.
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