Development of a Storage Retrieval Machine for High Racks Using a Wire Robot

Abstract

Intralogistics systems are a rapidly growing market. Today, high racks and automated storage retrieval machines are widely used to store and handle industrial goods. Conventional storage retrieval machines show a major drawback: While the containers or goods to be moved are often very lightweight, the storage retrieval machine itself may weight up to two tons which limits the energy efficiency and the motion capabilities. This limitation is a problem since the reduction of cycle times is crucial in logistics applications. Therefore, faster motions are desired. At the same time, a main focus in intralogistics development is on energy-saving solutions as part of the ongoing climate change debate. Together with the rising energy costs, this paves the way for radical new concepts which go beyond the lightweight construction of conventional storage retrieval machines. Recently, a huge research project started to realize an alternative approach for a storage retrieval machine system. This approach uses a parallel wire robot system to move the goods to be stored to the desired position. The system is extremely lightweight and therefore, fast motions are possible while the required energy is comparably low. Therefore, cycle times for the transport of the goods can be drastically reduced which is crucial in this application. The paper presented here describes both design concepts which were already presented, as well as optimized geometries which are superior in terms of workspace coverage and stiffness. First simulation results are shown and discussed with a focus on the potential of the system for precise loading and unloading of containers. Besides that, the overall mechatronic system design is introduced.

Geometric Optimization of a Large Scale CDPR Operating on a Building Facade

“…It is worth noting that the CDPR geometry obtained in this paper (Fig. 6) possesses smaller lowest maximum cable tensions than CDPR geometries similar to the ones used in existing fully-constrained 8-cable CDPRs such as IPAnema [7], CaBLAR [9], Media-TIC [32] and CableEndy, as illustrated in Fig. 7.…”

“…Lafourcade, Llibre and Reboulet proposed in [8] a similar machine to be used in wind tunnels. In [9], a storage retrieval machine based on a fully-constrained CDPR is presented while the one studied in [10] is designed with the purpose of painting and sandblasting large parts.…”

Real-Time Cable Force Calculation beyond the Wrench-Feasible Workspace

“…In the future, the presented method can be a contribution to ensure the safety and reliability of cable-driven parallel robots operating beyond their W F W, e.g., after a cable break. This is highly relevant in industrial applications, such as warehousing or automated construction [1,3].…”

“…Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPR) are in the focus of current research [1,2] and are also starting to make their way into industrial applications, see e.g., [3]. Such a robot is driven by cables, which are coiled on computerized winches and attached to an end-effector, following the kinematic structure of a Stewart-Gough platform.…”

Automated Construction of Masonry Buildings using Cable-Driven Parallel Robots

“…Recently, the application of wire robots for large-scale applications has been extensively addressed. In 2010, the project "Storage and Retrieval machine based on the Stewart-Gough-Platform" -funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Researchstarted to develop a storage retrieval machine that effectively uses the advantages of a parallel wire robot [20]: While conventional storage retrieval machines have a mass of one to two tons to move a payload of 20-50kg, the wire robot only moves 100kg including payload. Besides the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), the project included eight globally leading industrial partners from the logistics industry to realize a full-scale demonstrator (see Figure 1).…”