This paper presents extension of the triangular 6-cable NIST RoboCrane to a rectangular 8-cable-suspended robot, motivated by an application in the ARGOS (Active Response Gravity Offload System) Laboratory at NASA Johnson Space Center.  Six candidate cable/platform design arrangements are considered and evaluated in MATLAB simulation, based on all-eight-cable-positive tensions workspace, singularities, magnitude and slope of cable tensions during trajectories, translational/rotational stiffness, and cable interference.  As ever in engineering design, there are tradeoffs, and recommendations are made as to the most suitable design out of the six candidates.

Tradeoffs were noted in the design evaluation measures amongst the six candidate 8-cable-suspended robot designs. The overall recommendation based on this work is Design 5 (square platform with uncrossed cables).  This is based on only two trajectories, however, the authors expect this to be a general design recommendation result for more general ARGOS trajectories.


Eight-Cable Robocrane Extension for NASA JSC ARGOS

Division / Sponsors: 
Design Engineering Division and Computers & Information In Engineering Division


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2020/volume/83907

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