Cable-suspended robotic contour crafting system

This article introduces a new concept for a contour crafting construction system. Contour crafting is a relatively new layered fabrication technology that enables automated construction of whole structures. The system proposed here consists of a mobile contour crafting platform driven by a translational cable-suspended robot. The platform includes an extrusion system for laying beads of concrete as well as computer-controlled trowels for forming the beads as they are laid. This system is fully automated and its goal is to construct concrete structures rapidly and economically. The novel attributes of this system potentially enable significant improvements over other proposed contour crafting systems, including better portability, lower cost, and the possibility to build much larger structures. This article presents the kinematics and statics of the proposed system, provides a proof of translation-only motion, and uses the reachable workspace of the robot as well as the corresponding cable tensions to approximate the maximum size structure that can be built using this manipulator.