Design of a 3-Degrees-of-Freedom Cable-Driven Parallel Robot for Automated Construction Based on Workspace and Kinematic Sensitivity

Abstract In recent years, there has been an increased interest in automating construction tasks to produce more affordable houses at an increased production rate. With this in mind, this article explores the design of a suspended cable-driven parallel robot (CDPR) used as an automated platform for in situ construction. The selected robot topology arranges pairs of cables in parallel to connect the frame and mobile platform. This forms a series of parallelograms that restrict the mobile platform to a pure translational motion so long as the cables are maintained in tension. Contrary to previous works, the CDPR is parameterized to allow more freedom in the definition of the orientation of the parallelograms. The CDPR is designed based on workspace and kinematic sensitivity requirements, while avoiding singularities and mechanical interferences throughout the robot’s desired workspace. The result is an optimal CDPR based on the targeted 3D printing and pick-and-place tasks. It is shown that the parallelogram’s orientation can be selected to improve the robot’s kinematic sensitivity.