Autonomous Tethered Navigation of a Drywall-Sanding Mobile Manipulator

Nowadays, many building contractors use modular construction, where various parts of a building are partially or completely built on an assembly line and then assembled on-site. Building interior modules often involve finishing plasterboard walls, including closing joints between panels and hiding fasteners or defects.

To automate this task, mobile manipulators, equipped with a robotic arm, a sanding tool, and a vacuum system, are promising solutions. However, these systems are highly energy-demanding, and relying solely on batteries severely limits their autonomy and operational efficiency. A practical alternative is to power the robot through a tethered cable, ensuring continuous energy supply. This approach introduces unique navigation challenges: the cable can become entangled around obstacles or end up under the robot’s wheels, compromising safety and mission success.

This project investigates the development of a tether-aware navigation architecture for mobile robots. The goal is to enable autonomous movement while preventing cable entanglement and minimizing contact with obstacles. Building on previous work in surface identification, sanding tool control and autonomous scanning and navigation, this research focuses on integrating a dynamic cable model with global and local path planning strategies.

Faculty Supervisor:

François Ferland

Student:

Partner:

RCM modulaire

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Université de Sherbrooke

Program: