Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B66—HOISTING; LIFTING; HAULING
  • B66C—CRANES; LOAD-ENGAGING ELEMENTS OR DEVICES FOR CRANES, CAPSTANS, WINCHES, OR TACKLES
  • B66C13/00—Other constructional features or details
  • B66C13/04—Auxiliary devices for controlling movements of suspended loads, or preventing cable slack
  • B66C13/08—Auxiliary devices for controlling movements of suspended loads, or preventing cable slack for depositing loads in desired attitudes or positions

Definitions

• the invention relates to a payload suspension system for facilitating three-dimensional movement of a suspended payload especially but not exclusively for aerial
• a tendon suspended platform robot comprising of a platform, tendons and a control system.
• the platform contains proximal reels for the storage, retraction and extension of the tendons, with each tendon having a reel.
• the distal ends of the tendons are anchored at separate locations.
• the work space of the robot is primarily determined by the location of the tendon anchors.
• the platform is translated and rotated in the work space by controlling the lengths of the tendons extending from their respective reels.
• a master computer located on the platform controls each reel and coordinates their actuation.
• the platform When used with at least six tendons and reels, the platform has six degrees of freedom: translation in three axes and rotation about each of the foregoing three axes. Numerous types of end effectors can be mounted on the platform, thus enabling the robot to perform a wide variety of tasks.
• a tea serving robot suspended from ceiling is described in a publication of Takahashi, Y. Nakamura, M. Hirata, E. Dept . of Mech. Syst . Eng., Kanagawa Inst. Of Technol . ; (This paper appears in: Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1998. Proceedings., 1998 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Publication Date: 13-17 Oct 1998 Volume: 2, On page(s): 1296-1301 vol.2.
• the duty of the tea serving robot is to serve a drink to a bedridden person.
• a bedridden person can order the robot to bring a cup of tea without hesitation, and therefore can avoid his dehydration.
• a hand of the robot is suspended from a ceiling, of a house, and driven three dimensionally in the orthogonal coordinates. No installing area is required to utilize the robot because of the
• the hand swings as a pendulum.
• the tendon suspended platforms or robots require a lot of place for the tendons above the platform which is a limitation of use in an in-house environment where the suspended robot needs to navigate around
• the present invention involves a new system which solves the aforementioned problems, as well as other
• the invention is based on the recognition that keeping the main cables together by an arrester unit can increase the reachable area of a payload and therefore a larger place for positioning is available and less space is required for the suspending cables. Using the arrester unit also helps the cable forces keep low, in the worst case situation the largest cable force equal to the total dynamic load.
• the payload platform is suspended by main cables traversing through the arrester unit which keeps the main cables together.
• the arrester unit is connected to the payload platform by an anchoring cable.
• the arrester unit is connected to the payload platform by an anchoring cable actuated by a winding mechanism placed on the payload platform or on the arrester unit or on a suspension unit.
• the arrester unit forms a ring surrounding the main cables and anchoring the upper end of the anchoring cable at its circumference or constructed as a disk with apertures furnished with rollers.
• the most important advantage of the invention is that it increases the reachable area of the payload platform which is highly beneficial in case the payload platform is part of a service robot. Another important advantage is that cable forces are kept low, in the worst case situation the largest cable force is equal to the total dynamic load, while the reachable area is extended.
• FIGURE 1 is a schematic side view illustrating the advantage of the present invention over the prior art.
• FIGURES 2/A, 2/B and 2/C show different loading
• FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of an embodiment in which the arrester unit is a disk.
• FIGURE 4 schematically illustrates an embodiment in which the arrester unit is a ring.
• FIGURE 5 shows possible locations of the winding mechanism that actuates the anchoring cable.
• FIGURE 1 shows the advantage of using an arrester unit AU along the main cables MC.
• arrester unit AU (left) is smaller.
• a payload platform PP is suspended by three main cables MC.
• the upper end of the Main cables MC are attached to three separate winding mechanisms WM, connected to a suspension unit SU such as a pylon, providing the vertical motion to the payload platform PP by actuating the lengths of each main cable MC individually.
• an arrester unit AU is applied keeping the main cables MC together, which arrester unit is anchored to the payload platform PP at a centre point by an anchoring cable AC.
• the gravity force G shown only in FIGURES 2/A and 2/B of the payload PL is balanced by forces Kl, K2, K3 applied in the main cables MC and the force K4 of the anchoring cable AC.
• the forces Kl, K2, K3 applied in the main cables MC are also functions of the distance h between the payload platform PP and the arrester unit AU, i.e. the length of the anchoring cable AC. This means that cable forces Kl, K2, K3 are high if the distance h is small, and are low if the distance h is large. On one hand, very large forces - i.e. much higher than the
• the largest cable force is equal to the total weight of the unit (see FIGURE 2 /A) if no vertical acceleration of the payload is assumed.
• the force loading the anchoring cable AC can be calculated based on the notation used in the figure as where h is the distance of the arrester unit AU from the payload platform PP, and 1 is the radius of the circle along which the base points are situated. The friction forces acting upon the arrester unit AU are neglected.
• FIGURE 3 A perspective view in FIGURE 3 shows a better outlook of the relation among the arrester unit AU, the main cables MC, the payload platform PP and the anchoring cable AC.
• the arrester unit (AU) is disk with
• FIGURE 4 depicts a further embodiment of the arrester unit AU. In this case all the main cables MC are bundled with a ring as arrester unit AU, which is fixed to the payload platform PP by the anchoring cable AC.
• FIGURES 5/A, 5/B and 5/C different locations of the winding mechanism WM of the anchoring cable can bee seen.
• the winding mechanism WM is placed on the payload platform PP and in FIGURE 5/B it is placed on the arrester unit AU.
• the winding mechanism MM is located on a suspension unit (SU) .
• the anchoring cable is led through a pulley placed on the payload platform PP.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Jib Cranes (AREA)

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Publications (1)

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Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (7)

• 2009
  • 2009-07-28 HU HU0900466A patent/HUP0900466A2/hu unknown
• 2010
  • 2010-07-27 WO PCT/HU2010/000085 patent/WO2011012916A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2010-07-27 EP EP10749903.0A patent/EP2480479B1/en active Active

Patent Citations (7)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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