Miniaturization of a Planar Cable-Driven 3D Printer using Optimization

In this paper, the wrench-feasible printable workspace is analyzed for a planar redundant cable-driven 3D printer. This workspace has a characteristic feature of maintaining cable tension within the prescribed positive tension bounds while avoiding interference of lower cables with the object being printed for all the poses in the workspace. Furthermore, the effect of various geometric parameters on the workspace of the robot is studied. Finally, the miniaturization of a cable-driven 3D printer is achieved for a specified workspace by optimizing geometric parameters of the robot using the genetic algorithm.