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In this paper, the operating stiffness of a parallel robot used to handle heavy packages is optimized. Because the studied model, called a "pick and place robot," is applied for packaging logistics, it is important for the robot to be lightweight so that it may respond rapidly and have high stiffness to allow sufficient operating precision. However, these two requirements of low weight and high stiffness are mutually exclusive. Thus, the dynamic characteristics of the robot are analyzed through multibody dynamics analysis, and topology optimization is conducted to achieve this exclusive performance. Lastly, the reliability of the topology optimization is verified by applying the optimized design to the parallel robot.

Fiber-optic cables towed by underwater vehicles have an important role in enhancing the mission capability of a mother ship. In general, fiber optic cables are unwound in water for securing unwinding stability and preventing unwinding-related problems. Therefore, in this study, the numerically simulated result is verified against the experimental result in water, and the cable-unwinding motion is predicted based on the increase in unwinding velocity. The experimental apparatus is composed of a water tank and a winder, and a high-speed camera is used for photographing the cable-unwinding motion. The numerical result defined in the Cartesian coordinate system is solved using a transient-state unwinding equation of motion. The numerical result agrees well with the experimental result, and it can predict cable-unwinding behaviors in according to an increase in the unwinding velocity.

As a fiber-optic cable is being unwound, it is protected by a tube that is designed to prevent unwinding problems such as tangling and unintentional cutting. In addition, a guide body is separated from the protective tube if a shear pin breaks when the maximum allowable load is exceeded. Therefore, it is important to analyze and predict the unwinding behavior of the protective tube, as well as the load on the shear pin, to enhance the likelihood of a successful operation when laying cables at extreme depths. In this study, the protective tube and the guide body are modeled with particles and are constrained with a constant-length constraint. The load on the shear pin was verified against experimental data, and the unwinding behavior was predicted from the load prediction results.

모함에 연결된 탄성 호스는 그 길이가 수 십 미터 이르므로, 실제 수중에서 실험을 통해 거동을 분석하는 것이 현실적으로 어렵다. Fig. 1 The system of mother ship Key Words : Flexible Hose(탄성 호스), Absolute Nodal Coordinate (절대 절점 좌표), Continuum Mechanics(연속체 역학), Mother Ship(모함) 초록: 모함에 연결되어 통신 케이블의 가이드 역할을 하는 탄성 호스는 모함의 운동 조건을 결정하는 중요한 인자이다. 길이가 수 십 미터에 달하는 탄성 호스를 실제 상황에서 실험을 하기에는 어려움이 있으므로 해석을 통해 거동 특성을 분석하고자 한다. 탄성 호스는 곡률 반경에 대한 변형뿐만 아니라 축 방향에 대한 변형도 발생하므로, 축 방향에 대한 변형 구배가 좌표계에서 유도되는 절대 절점 좌표계로 모델링하였으며, 연속체 역학 개념을 도입함으로써 대변형 효과를 표현하도록 하였다. 탄성 호스의 끝 단에 연결된 모함은 강체 모델로 표현하였고, 조향각에 의해 운동이 결정되도록 하였다. 또한, 수중에서 호스가 거동할 때 발생하는 유체 저항력을 고려함으로써 수중에서의 탄성 호스 거동 특성을 분석하였다. Abstract: A flexible hose attached to a mother ship experiences various motions that depend on the movement of the mother ship and that of underwater vehicle. Although the motion of the hose is a very important factor that determines how a mother ship should be steered in a real situation, it is difficult to experimentally obtain information about the hose motion. Therefore, we study the motion of the hose analytically. The ANCF(absolute nodal coordinate formulation) was used to model the hose, because this formulation can relax the Euler-Bernoulli theory and the Timoshenko beam theory and allow the deformation of the cross section. The mother ship is assumed to be a rigid body with 6 degrees of freedom. The motion of the hose is predominantly affected by the behavior of the mother ship and by the fluid flow.

Under harsh environments in which remote control is impossible, wire-guided control technology is effective for controlling distant underwater vehicles that serve mother ships in missions, such as exploration and installation. When the fiber is unwound from the spool, tension fluctuations occur in the fiber because of the relative velocity of the moving vehicles and unwinding velocity of the fiber. As a result, fiber cables exhibit complicated behaviors, become entangled, and may get cut. In this study, a spool-like design for winding tens of kilometers of fiber cables is proposed by analyzing cable winding. The unwinding performance of the designed spool is estimated by performing nonlinear dynamics analysis of the nonlinear behavior and tension fluctuations observed during the unwinding of the fiber.