[bauma 2022] MECHATRONIK - cable robot

Hi nice to meet you. My name is Roland and I’m a researcher from the University of Duisburg Essen from Germany, from the chair of mechatronics.

And in our chair we do a lot of research in different projects.

And one specific project that we have is called the Cable Robot.

Cable Robots are a very special type of robots they use cables to move a platform. 

on the platform you can have a tool and with the cables you can have a very large workspace.

And with this type of robot, we were looking for applications that we can have.
We had some projects also with logistics.

And one recent project that we did is with some partners together in the construction industry.

And this is also what what you see this plate here behind me.

This project together with some partners.
We were teaming up with the EAB from Weimar the German Calcium Silicate Industry and also another chair from our University from construction.  

And we realized a prototype, a cable robot prototype that is doing automated masonry work using calcium silicate units and motor.

You see this plate here in this picture,

what we have is a frame set up from elements that you know from festival stages, very easy to handle, very quick to set up.

And we have a cable robot with a platform.

The platform has a gripper to handle the units it can handle up to 100 kilograms meaning that we can also handle lymphos for the doors and the windows and also larger brake units.

We use eight cables to move the platform.

and at some point when we build up the building, we will have collisions with the lower cables and the building.

and for this purpose we invented a technique to vertically move the pulleys within the frame,

meaning that the robot can climb when the building is erected.

On the left side there is a machine where you can feed in the bricks.  

then motor gets applied the brick is flipped over and then handed over to the cable robot system.

then it gets placed and the placement is according to a plan, a digital building plan based on a Bim model, that is getting imported.

We have algorithms to decide where a unit needs to be and where to place the units.

and then you have a list and this list gets handed over to the robot and the robot knows which unit is next and where to place it.

This picture that you see here, we also have a prototype running that we have also in the video here at our booth.

And you can also find the video on YouTube.
We will put the link in the description I guess.
You can also search for Lehstuhl Mechatronik, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen.

You will also find the video.

And we also have different videos of our prototypes.
We also did for example one application using 3D concrete printing with a cable robot and different stuff.

So if you’re interested in our research you can find our website of the University chair at www.uni-due.de/machatronik/