Abstract

Robotic inspection systems are increasingly being used in both civil and industrial infrastructure or facilities to inspect hard- or dangerous-to-reach critical places. Cable-driven hyper-redundant robots, which take their design inspiration and functionality from the movement of snakes, are highly articulated and hence very flexible robotic structures attached to a fixed base that are actuated and manipulated by intricate systems of cables and joints.

This article discusses a multi-objective optimization study to determine the optimal matrix for the routing of the actuating cable system in order to minimize the cable load on the robot and maximize the robot’s payload.