Building a habitat on the moon is going to depend on a collaborative process between humans and robots.
The robot arm and building blocks used in Side Quest. Image Credit: Australian Rover Challenge
But Adelaide University PhD candidate Albert Rajkumar is exploring the importance of another player in the process – the architectural artifact itself.
“In most discussions around lunar construction, humans and robots are key, as the human interprets, supervises and intervenes, while the robot executes,” said Rajkumar, from the University’s Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources.
“But I’m currently exploring the idea that the building block, like a brick, is not a passive part of the process, but an active agent in construction.”
Rajkumar, a space architect, said when building begins on the moon, humans won’t be co-located with the robots on the construction site.
“This poses new challenges. But it is where extended reality (XR) can help reconnect human perception and decision-making with robotic construction happening at a distance,” he said.
“With that in mind, it’s important to explore why understanding material behavior is as valuable as user interfaces and robot autonomy.”
Rajkumar has several papers, including one from last year’s International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in Sydney, investigating the relationship.
He put it to the test during this year’s Australian Rover Challenge at the University’s Roseworthy campus through his Side Quest project.
“We wanted to demonstrate how robotics and extended reality would work for the purpose of construction,” he said.
“Participants sat wearing a VR headset facing away from a table which had a robotic arm and a series of blocks on it.
“Taking on the role of a supervisor, players work with a real robotic construction system to build the tallest tower possible while immersed in a VR lunar habitat setting.
“This really allowed people to see first-hand how robots, people, and architectural artifacts can work together in this way.
“We wanted to use the Rover Challenge as a platform to connect with students and researchers working in robotics, AI, machine learning, and XR, and we’re still actively looking to build collaborations around these ideas”
Now Rajkumar is taking the experiment to a larger stage - building a more life-size habitat in the CRATER facility at Roseworthy.
“In the long term, we hope this research helps lay the groundwork for how humans and robots might build together - both in space and here on Earth - and uncover what this new architecture might look like,” he said