Control Method and Simulation of Reconfigurable Façade Cable-Driven Parallel Robots Based on Heuristic Local Rules

Traditional control strategies for Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) rely heavily on global kinematic modeling and precise calibration, severely limiting their adaptability in unstructured or dynamic environments. This study addresses the challenge of rapid deployment without geometric priors by proposing a reconfigurable CDPR system composed of modular units. A novel heuristic control strategy based on “4+2+1” local rules is introduced, comprising translational, attitude correction, and tension maintenance logic. By utilizing local feedback—including cable tension, attitude, and anchor orientation—this method generates control commands without requiring boundary condition calibration, thereby supporting real-time reconfiguration. Numerical simulations of a façade cleaning scenario demonstrate that the system maintains stability across varying topologies, including anchor position changes and unit failures. Compared to a benchmark kinematic method, the proposed strategy reduces trajectory tracking error by approximately 50.5% and suppresses the pitch Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) from a divergent 42.75° (traditional) to 1.52°, effectively preventing the attitude failure typical of uncalibrated model-based control. These findings confirm that the proposed rule-based approach significantly enhances robustness and adaptability, offering a practical solution for deploying CDPRs in complex environments without pre-existing maps.