Development of Cable Reel for Spherical Trailer – Uniform Cable Winding

Masayuki Arai; Shigeo Hirose

doi:10.20965/jrm.2008.p0533

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JRM Vol.20 No.4 pp. 533-540

doi: 10.20965/jrm.2008.p0533

(2008)

Paper:

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Development of Cable Reel for Spherical Trailer – Uniform Cable Winding

Masayuki Arai and Shigeo Hirose

Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ohokayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

Received:

March 29, 2008

Accepted:

June 17, 2008

Published:

August 20, 2008

Keywords:

spherical trailer, reel mechanism, oscillating movement, uniform cable winding, cam mechanism

Abstract

Cabled communication is considered useful for rescue robots in post-disaster environments because the cable provides good signal communication and assists in retrieving the robot. Having said that, however, the cable could also hinder robot mobility and smaller robots lack payload capacity for reels. The spherical trailer cable reel we developed consists of a spherical trailer and a cable reel with a cable oscillator to oscillate the cable over the reel. Through experiments and studies, we identified a problem with the cable oscillator that prevented the cable from being wound uniformly over the reel. We propose three improvements to solve this problem involving optimization of the spatial cam structure. This paper describes the cable reel, improved mechanisms, and experiments to test their performances.

Cite this article as:

Masayuki Arai and Shigeo Hirose, “Development of Cable Reel for Spherical Trailer – Uniform Cable Winding,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.20, No.4, pp. 533-540, 2008.

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References

[1] R. R. Murphy, “Trial by fire,” IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Vol.11, Issue. 3, pp. 50-61, 2004.
[2] Inuktun Services Limited, “Versatrax,”
http://www.inuktun.com/
[3] Mesa Robotics, Inc., “MATILDA,”
http://www.mesainc.com/
[4] M. Arai, Y. Tanaka, and S. Hirose, “Development of Hemispherical Wheel Trailer Equipped with Cable Reel Mechanism for Cable Communication Type Rescue Robot,” Proc. of the 2005 JSME Conf. on Robotics and Mechatronics, No.05-4, 1P1-S-073, 2005.
[5] M. Arai, Y. Tanaka, and S. Hirose, “Development of Spherical Trailer (Application to Reel Mechanism and Cable Parallel-Winding Mechanism,” Proc. of the 8th SICE SI, pp. 333-334, Dec., 2005.
[6] M. Arai and S. Hirose, “Development of Spherical-Trailer-Type Cable Reel Mechanism,” Proc. of the Robotics and Applications and Telematics -RA2007-, Track. 563-075, Aug., 2007.

[1] [1] R. R. Murphy, “Trial by fire,” IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Vol.11, Issue. 3, pp. 50-61, 2004.

[2] [2] Inuktun Services Limited, “Versatrax,”
http://www.inuktun.com/

[3] [3] Mesa Robotics, Inc., “MATILDA,”
http://www.mesainc.com/

[4] [4] M. Arai, Y. Tanaka, and S. Hirose, “Development of Hemispherical Wheel Trailer Equipped with Cable Reel Mechanism for Cable Communication Type Rescue Robot,” Proc. of the 2005 JSME Conf. on Robotics and Mechatronics, No.05-4, 1P1-S-073, 2005.

[5] [5] M. Arai, Y. Tanaka, and S. Hirose, “Development of Spherical Trailer (Application to Reel Mechanism and Cable Parallel-Winding Mechanism,” Proc. of the 8th SICE SI, pp. 333-334, Dec., 2005.

[6] [6] M. Arai and S. Hirose, “Development of Spherical-Trailer-Type Cable Reel Mechanism,” Proc. of the Robotics and Applications and Telematics -RA2007-, Track. 563-075, Aug., 2007.