Humanitys evolution toward an interplanetary species poses a new frontier for the construction industry: extraterrestrial construction. With fast technological advancements in manufacturing and robotics, it is a matter of when, not if, before humans make perpetual habitats on nearby planetary bodies. We envision the emerging frontier of the construction industry as extraterrestrial construction, where the role of workers and their required skills will change dramatically. Due to the extreme and hazardous outer-space conditions, the future of extraterrestrial construction will be technology-intensive, from using onsite machine and robot operations to using cyber-physical systems for managing logistical operations. Accordingly, the role and skillsets of construction workers in future extraterrestrial construction projects will contrast with the current practices on Earth. We aim to present a collective perspective on the nature of future extraterrestrial construction and the hierarchy of the skills required by future workers, as well as emerging technologies that can be used for developing a future-ready workforce. To accomplish this, we convened a national interdisciplinary workshop, engaging diverse stakeholders in the United States, including researchers, educators, and professionals, from academia, industry, and government. This paper summarizes the outcomes of our workshop, structured around three core themes: future work (extraterrestrial construction), future workers (extraterrestrial workforce), and future technology (emerging technologies for workforce training). The detailed exploration within these three themes marks an initial endeavor to chart a course for training in extraterrestrial construction, particularly with NASAs Moon to Mars Program in mind.
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Towards AI-Assisted Smart Training Platform for Future Manufacturing Workforce
With the fast development of Industry 4.0, the ways in which manufacturing workers handle machines, materials, and products also change drastically. Such changes post several demanding challenges to the training of future workforce. First, personalized manufacturing will lead to small batch and fast
changing tasks. The training procedure must demonstrate agility. Second, new interfaces to interact with human or robots will change the training procedure. Last but not least, in addition to handling the physical objects, a worker also needs to be trained to digest and respond to rich data generated at the manufacturing site. To respond to these challenges, in this paper we describe the design of an AI-assisted training platform for manufacturing
workforce. The platform will collect rich data from both machines and workers. It will capture and analyze both macro and micro movement of trainees with the help of AI algorithms. At the same time, training for interaction with robot/cobot will also be covered. Mixed reality will be used to create in-situ experiences for the trainee.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10184361
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- AAAI 2020 Spring Symposium, AI in Manufacturing
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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