Astrobotics: Swarm Robotics for Astrophysical Studies

Published in "IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine", DOI: 10.1109/MRA.2020.3044911 Matin Macktoobian, Denis Gillet, and Jean-Paul Kneib The authors are with the School of Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland (e-mail: matin.macktoobian@epfl.ch; Abstract This paper introduces the emerging field of astrobotics, that is, a recently-established branch of robotics to be of service to astrophysics and observational astronomy. We first describe a modern requirement of dark matter studies, i.e., the generation of the map of the observable universe, using astrobots. Astrobots differ from conventional two-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulators in two respects. First, the dense formation of astrobots give rise to the extremely overlapping dynamics of neighboring astrobots which make them severely subject to collisions. Second, the structure of astrobots and their mechanical specifications are specialized due to the embedded optical fibers passed through them. We focus on the coordination problem of astrobots whose solutions shall be collision-free, fast execution, and complete in terms of the astrobots' convergence rates. We also illustrate the significant impact of astrobots assignments to observational targets on the quality of coordination solutions To present the current state of the field, we elaborate the open problems including next-generation astrophysical projects including 20,000 astrobots, and other fields, such as space debris tracking, in which astrobots may be potentially used. Astrobotics is an emerging field of swarm robotics aiming to the development and control of astrobots [1, 2] to be of service to astrophysical studies and cosmological spectroscopic observations. In particular, astrobotics addresses a wide range of swarm-robotic-related topics (see, Figure 1) which exhibit challenging problems in design, interaction, coordination, and mission planning corresponding to astrobots. There have been many astrophysical projects, such as the SDSS family [3] which seek the generation of the map of the observable universe.