HEPHAESTUS / HOW IT WORKS
How It Works
No GPS, no external markers, no cloud dependency for driving. Here's how MurrAI and the fleet actually run the site.
THE AI SITE MANAGER
MurrAI — Multi-agent Unified Robotics & Reasoning Artificial Intelligence
MurrAI runs the site from the command centre - it's a persistent AI agent that assigns tasks, coordinates vehicles, manages traffic, and tracks progress. It knows where every vehicle is, what it's doing, and what needs to happen next. It's the tool built to run the fleet, not a mysterious black box.
- Task assignmentDecides what needs doing and hands it to the right vehicle.
- Traffic managementCoordinates the road network and intersections.
- Charging coordinationRoutes vehicles to the depot before they run flat.
- Work sequencingTracks progress and queues the next job.
- Fleet awarenessKnows where every vehicle is and what it's doing, live.
Autonomous Navigation
Each vehicle carries its own AI brain (Jetson Orin Nano Super) running the MurrAI Drive vision-language model onboard. Vehicles navigate using wheel encoders + IMU (inertial measurement unit) - dead reckoning with periodic zero-point resets at the charging dock. No GPS, no external markers, no cloud dependency. A vehicle can drive and make decisions even if the network drops.
The Site
The 10m × 10m outdoor site is divided into zones:
- Depot - charging, parking, HQ
- Road network - 1m-wide roads connecting all zones, AI-managed intersections
- Construction zone - active earthworks, rotating project sites
- Quarry - raw material source and spoil destination
- Town site - progressive build: roads → utilities → buildings → landscaping
- Garden - real raised veggie beds at scale
- Speedway - RC car track for club days and vehicle testing
How Tasks Work
- MurrAI decides what needs doing (e.g. "move gravel from stockpile to construction zone").
- It assigns the task to the right vehicle via MQTT over local WiFi.
- The vehicle plans its own route, navigates autonomously, executes the task.
- Status updates flow back to MurrAI, which tracks progress and queues the next job.
- When a vehicle is done or low on battery, it returns to the depot.