Future Improvements

In the absence of technical problems due to Gazebo, the group would have accomplished the following.

Testing the code on the real robot

Our development process was significantly slowed by technical problems due to Gazebo, and we haven’t had a chance to try our code on the physical robot. We predict a much higher success rate in real life, as most of the problems that make our staircase break are due to the unrealistically low friction and weight of simulated bricks (see Gazebo Limitations page for details).

Improving the motion planning

Perfecting the interpolation of joint angles could reduce shakiness in the robot’s movement (see Motion Planning page for details).

Error detection

The published position of the gripper’s fingers can be used to detect if the end effector has failed to pick up or dropped a brick, and an error recovery protocol could be added.

First, asking the user whether they wish to continue building the staircase after the error occurred. If the robot has dropped a brick over the staircase it has built so far and moved it significantly as a result, the user may not with to continue.

If the error did not cause any movement of other bricks in the workspace, the user can input to continue building the staircase: the gripper is told to pick up the next brick in the column stations, and to place it in the staircase position that the previous brick would have occupied had it not fallen.