Modeling of a Reconfigurable Cable-Driven Parallel Robot Under Low Gravity

Abstract Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) boast advantages such as large workspace and large payload to weight ratio, among others. In the context of maintenance of space structures, these properties could be beneficial. However, CDPRs have not yet been widely applied in the domain of space exploration. The goal of the work presented in this paper is to model a novel CDPR with a reconfigurable structure which can be placed to traverse large areas of space, with space structure maintenance in mind as a potential target application. Kinematics, pose feasibility, and reconfiguration strategy are discussed, and a simulation example is presented to further illustrate the concept.