In this paper, a new type of large-dimension reconfigurable suspended cable-driven parallel robots (CDPR) is introduced as a means to substitute for conventional methods of handing large and heavy parts across wide workspaces. The reconfigurability of the proposed CDPR offers better performances in term of workspace, flexibility and power consumption. A systematic procedure to solve a complex nonlinear optimization problem to find optimal reconfiguration for the robot is presented. Critical issues regarding various constraints and performance criteria are addressed. The robot can operate in offline reconfiguration or online reconfiguration modes which offer wide range of solutions to the end-users.

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This paper addresses the simplification of cable model in static analysis of large-dimension cable-driven parallel robots (CDPR). An approach to derive a simplified hefty cable model is presented. The approach provides an insight into the limitation of such a simplification. The resulting cable tension computation is then used to solve the inverse kinematic problem of CDPR. A new expression of cable length taking into account both the non-negligible cable mass and elasticity is also introduced. Finally, simulations and experiments on a large CDPR prototype are provided. The results show that taking into account both cable mass and elasticity improves the robot accuracy.

This paper discusses the use of large-dimension reconfigurable suspended cable-driven parallel robots (CDPR) to substitute for conventional gantry nacelles that carry workers in an airplane maintenance workshop. The reconfiguration of the CDPR is considered as a multi-objective optimization problem with two performance indices. One criterion is the sum of the cable tensions which is directly related to the power consumption of the CDPR. The other criterion is the normalized upper bound on the infinitesimal displacement of the mobile platform, used here as a means to quantify the stiffness of the CDPR. A systematic procedure is proposed to find optimal reconfigurations of the CDPR while dealing efficiently with the tradeoff between these two criteria.