Location: Tübingen, Germany

“The CableRobot simulator provides a novel approach to the design of motion simulation platforms in as far as it uses cables and winches for actuation instead of rigid links known from hexapod simulators. This approach allows reducing the actuated mass, scale up the workspace significantly, and provides great flexibility to switch between system configurations in which the robot can be operated. The simulator is used for studies in the field of human perception research, flight simulation, and virtual reality applications.

The CableRobot simulator uses a parallel kinematics architecture where the usually rigid links are replaced by winch driven cables. 

The use of cable robots for motion simulation allows to build simulators with an power-weight ratio of approximately 2.6 kW/kg with respect to the provided large operational space. The simulator provides a maximum acceleration of 5m/s2 in a workspace of 4x5x5m3 and maximum roll, pitch, yaw angles of ±40º, ±40º, ±5º respectively. Using winches with a total power of 384 kW allows for cable forces of 12000N and a maximum acceleration of 14 m/s2 at a payload of 200 kg. The bandwidth of the system varies between 10 and 14 Hz depending of the cable length and cabin position inside the workspace.”