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The r3 Rope Robot

Here's a look at one of the world's most advanced rope robots, the r3. It uses ropes guided over deflection units and pulled by motorized winches to move end effectors into any point in space.

Furthermore, combining information from absolute position measurement units and high-resolution motor encoders allows r3 to determine absolute winch positions at any given time. Force sensors on each rope, and a sampling frequency of 4 kHz complete the setup, making the robot a very versatile platform.

One application is the Somnomat -- essentially, it's a robotic means of potentially rocking someone to sleep. The Somnomat will gather sleep information such as heart rate, breathing, etc.

A second project is designed to understand motor learning of fast movements by using the robot to support a tennis-like 3D-movement. This implements different assistive controllers, like position or path control.

Another project is a rowing simulator to recreate the experience of rowing on a river -- even going so far as to include cheering crowds and the experience of an oar actually entering the water.

r3, I am sure, will inspire many other fascinating applications. I wonder if it could simulate rock climbing, seeing as it's already equipped with ropes?

For more information, see the September 27, 2010 edition of IEEE Spectrum Online.

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