Development of a Scaled-Down Prototype of a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot for Ship Hull Surface Grinding

Abstract

To address the low efficiency of traditional hull grinding operations, the high safety risks of manual work, and the limited mobility of existing wall-climbing robots, a three-degree-of-freedom planar grinding robot is designed to adapt to the grinding working conditions of ship outer surfaces. The robot adopts a cable-driven parallel structure as the main body, and the moving platform is equipped with a grinding device. A scaled-down prototype of the robot is developed. With a fully constrained cable-driven parallel mechanism adopted, the overall structural design and hardware control system are completed. A static equilibrium model of the robot is established, and finite element static analysis is carried out on key load-bearing components such as the grinding disc and mounting platform by using SolidWorks software to obtain the distribution laws of stress, strain and deformation of the components. Simulation results show that the stress and deformation of key components of the prototype are within the allowable range of materials, which verifies that the structural selection and material configuration can meet the safety requirements under hull grinding working conditions. This research provides an experimental verification platform and theoretical basis for the engineering application and structural optimization of large-scale cable-driven grinding robots applied in marine environments.