Analysis framework for cooperating mobile cable robots

Cable robots form a class of parallel architecture robots with significant benefits including simplicity of construction, large workspace, significant payload capacity and end effector stiffness. While conventional cable robots have fixed bases, we seek to explore inclusion of mobility into the bases (in the form of gantries, and/or vehicle bases) which can significantly further enhance the capabilities of cable robots. However, this also introduces redundancy and complexity into the system which needs to be carefully analyzed and resolved. To this end, we propose a generalized modeling framework for systematic design and analysis of cooperative mobile cable robots, building upon knowledge base of multi-fingered grasping, and illustrate it with a case study of four cooperating gantry mounted cable robots transporting a planar payload.