Patent — available for licensing
Assemblers
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
In-space and planetary surface assembly for human exploration is a challenging domain that encompasses various technological thrusts to support human missions. NASA is developing autonomous assembly agents to build structures like habitats and antennae on the Moon. These modular and reconfigurable Assembler robots will provide robotic assembly of structures, even in locations that prohibit constant human oversight and teleoperation. This system is capable of scheduling, reconfiguring, and executing structural assembly tasks; assessing construction; and correcting errors in assembly as needed. On command, the Assemblers stack themselves into robot team members for the task. For example, a few Assemblers might build a solar array as shown in the above image. The Assembler technology builds upon recent advancements in lightweight materials, state estimation, modern control theory, and machine learning. The Assembler technology builds upon recent advancements in multi-agent planning, state estimation, modern control theory, and machine learning. Compared with existing short-reach/high-accuracy and long-reach/low accuracy-assembly robots, Assemblers provides both long- and short-reach capability with accuracy and precision. NASA has developed a prototype of the technology and seeks companies that are interested in licensing the technology and commercializing it for space or other applications.