A Vision-Based Referencing Procedure for Cable-Driven Parallel Manipulators

In the last three decades, cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) have captured a growing attention in the robotics field. Indeed, they promise to bring automation in fields where it is not affirmed yet, granting ease of scaling and reconfigurability. For large-workspace cable robots, accuracy is an important issue. In this paper, a look-and-move procedure is proposed, based on a wireless camera, to refer the coordinate frame of the CDPR platform to another known coordinate frame. Two sample cases are studied and presented. In the first, the proposed vision-based system is employed to let the platform precisely attain its home position. In the second, the platform is referenced to an external coordinate frame, in order to accurately accomplish an assigned task. For both cases, experiments are successfully carried out

Cable-driven parallel robot for curtain wall module installation

A cable-driven parallel robot (CDPR) was developed for the installation of curtain wall modules (CWM). The research addressed the question of whether the CDPR was capable installing CWMs with sufficient accuracy while being competitive compared to conventional manual methods. In order to develop and test such a system, a conceptual framework that consisted of three sub-systems was defined. The tests, carried out in two close-to-real demonstration buildings, revealed an absolute accuracy of the CWM installation of 4 to 23 mm. The working time for installing a CWM was reduced to 0.51 h. The results also show that the system is competitive for a workspace greater than 96 m2 compared to conventional manual methods. However, improvements such as reducing the hours for setting up the CDPR on the one hand and achieving a faster and more robust MEE on the other hand will be still necessary in the future.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 73251

A modular cable robot for inspection and light manipulation on celestial bodies

Planetary exploration has been carried out with solitary probes since the nineteen-sixties; on the other hand, the newly emerging paradigm for robotic exploration shows multi-expertize, complex modular systems as necessary for efficient and thorough activities. In this paper we propose a modular Cable Driven Parallel Robot (CDPR) that is deployed by a rover, which can take advantage of its large workspace for tasks as inspection or light manipulation. While the general deployment procedure is described, focus is given on the CDPR; a model for the pseudostatics of the robot is formulated, as well as an analysis on its modules stability. The workspace is then characterized using appropriate metrics. Results show that a 1 Kg payload for the end-effector is effectively feasible with substantial margin for an equilateral triangular workspace of 10 m side. Finally, several possible practical applications are illustrated

Advances in Robot Kinematics : Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Advances in Robot Kinematics

International audienceThe motion of mechanisms, kinematics, is one of the most fundamental aspect of robot design, analysis and control but is also relevant to other scientific domains such as biome- chanics, molecular biology, . . . . The series of books on Advances in Robot Kinematics (ARK) report the latest achievement in this field. ARK has a long history as the first book was published in 1991 and since then new issues have been published every 2 years. Each book is the follow-up of a single-track symposium in which the participants exchange their results and opinions in a meeting that bring together the best of world’s researchers and scientists together with young students. Since 1992 the ARK symposia have come under the patronage of the International Federation for the Promotion of Machine Science-IFToMM.This book is the 13th in the series and is the result of peer-review process intended to select the newest and most original achievements in this field. For the first time the articles of this symposium will be published in a green open-access archive to favor free dissemination of the results. However the book will also be o↵ered as a on-demand printed book.The papers proposed in this book show that robot kinematics is an exciting domain with an immense number of research challenges that go well beyond the field of robotics.The last symposium related with this book was organized by the French National Re- search Institute in Computer Science and Control Theory (INRIA) in Grasse, France