Developing a Winch for a Low-Cost Cable-Driven Parallel Robot

This paper presents the design, development, and evaluation of an innovative, low-cost, easy to build winch mechanism for a cable-driven parallel robot. Cable-driven parallel robots offer significant advantages in terms of workspace volume, reconfigurability, and payload capacity, making them suitable for various industrial and research applications. However, the cost and complexity of traditional robotic systems often limit their accessibility and deployment. Our research addresses this challenge with the goal to create a cable-driven parallel robot platform that is low-cost, easy to source as well as easy to build, configure and operate. This serves to expand the use of robotics not only in industry and research, but also in education and hobbyist applications. An important part of cable-driven parallel robots are the winches, which need to have a high accuracy in order to position the end-effector precisely, therefore often requiring custom or specialized parts for a mechanism to ensure this. The proposed winch system incorporates off-the-shelf components and 3D printed parts to minimize production costs while ensuring robustness and precision. Key design features include a compact and modular structure as well as some flexibility regarding the used cable-diameter, length and material.