Integration of a parallel cable-driven robot on an existing building façade

In order to use a cable-driven parallel robot to inspect an existing surface, a straightforward solution consists in fixing the robot components on this surface. In most cases, however, there are conditions that limit these fixations, for example structural reasons since the frame of the surface has probably not been specifically calculated to withstand the forces generated by the parallel cable-driven robot. In the particular case of inspection of the façade of a building, civil engineering specifications apply, which may drastically reduce the engineering possibilities from the point of view of the parallel cable-driven robot designers. This paper introduces a detailed example of implementation of a parallel cable-driven robot on the Media-TIC building located in Barcelona in Spain. In this highly technological building, the main façade parallel cable-driven robot in intended to work as a sensor for monitoring the environment, but also as an interface between the building and its occupiers. The various constraints—due to normative, structural and aesthetic reasons—that were tackled are described in the paper, along with the elected detailed design of the robot that complies with these constraints.