Cost Effective Design and Development of a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot for Concrete Printing

Abstract Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) are well known for their large workspace and simple design. They are also easy to transport, assemble and disassemble, and more easily reconfigurable. These properties make them a potential alternative for on-site printing of structures. This work presents the detailed steps for the cost-effective design and development of the CDPR for concrete printing. The cost-effectiveness of the design is ensured by using prefabricated materials/parts available in the local market and reducing the machining cost as much as possible. The robot consists of a mobile platform whose position and orientation are controlled by varying cable lengths by the application of winches. A screw extruder is mounted on the mobile platform to extrude concrete/clay. The controller design for the whole system is detailed, and the measures to obtain the trajectory for printing are discussed. Thereafter, the cost analysis of the entire robot is performed. Finally, experimental results are presented to validate the accuracy of the robot.