robotics

Article
A Simulation Study of a Planar Cable-Driven Parallel Robot to
Transport Supplies for Patients with Contagious Diseases in
Health Care Centers
Marco Carpio 1,2, * , Roque Saltaren 1 , Julio Viola 2 , Cecilia García 1 , Juan Guerra 2 , Juan Cely 1
and Cristian Calderón 2

1 Centro de Automática y Robótica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2,

28006 Madrid, Spain; roquejacinto.saltaren@upm.es (R.S.); cecilia.garcia@upm.es (C.G.); js.cely@upm.es (J.C.)
2 Grupo de Investigación en Interacción Robótica y Automatica (GIIRA), Universidad Politécnica Salesiana,
Calle Turuhayco 3-69 y Calle Vieja, Cuenca 010105, Ecuador; jviola@ups.edu.ec (J.V.);
jguerraj@est.ups.edu.ec (J.G.); ccalderonl1@est.ups.edu.ec (C.C.)
* Correspondence: mcarpio@ups.edu.ec

Abstract: Currently, a large number of investigations are being carried out in the area of robotics
focused on proposing solutions in the field of health, and many of them have directed their efforts on
issues related to the health emergency due to COVID-19. Considering that one of the ways to reduce
the risk of contagion is by avoiding contact and closeness between people when exchanging supplies
such as food, medicine, clothing, etc., this work proposes the use of a planar cable-driven parallel



robot for the transport of supplies in hospitals whose room distribution has planar architecture.

 The robot acts in accordance with a procedure proposed for each task to be carried out, which
Citation: Carpio, M.; Saltaren, R.; includes the process of disinfection (based on Ultraviolet-C light) of the supplies transported inside
Viola, J.; García, C.; Guerra, J.; Cely, J.; the robot’s end effector. The study presents a design proposal for the geometry of the planar cable-
Calderón C. A Simulation Study of a driven parallel robots and its end effector, as well as the software simulations that allow evaluating
Planar Cable-Driven Parallel Robot to the robot’s movement trajectories and the responses of the position control system based on Fuzzy-
Transport Supplies for Patients with PID controllers.
Contagious Diseases in Health Care
Centers. Robotics 2021, 10, 111.
Keywords: CDPR; COVID; trajectory; control; contagious diseases; transporting supplies
https://doi.org/10.3390/
robotics10040111

Academic Editor: Marco Ceccarelli

1. Introduction
Received: 23 July 2021 The use of robots has made it possible to provide numerous solutions in different
Accepted: 26 September 2021 areas of health care, an example of this being those applications aimed at preventing the
Published: 30 September 2021 transmission of respiratory diseases. Furthermore, a growing number of robot applications
with large areas of movement are being applied in logistics, storing, construction, etc. In this
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral section, some research papers that report on these types of applications are summarized.
with regard to jurisdictional claims in In the case presented in [1], the public acceptance of autonomous delivery robots (ADR)
published maps and institutional affil- for last-mile freight deliveries is investigated. This characteristic of contactless distribution
iations. can promote mass delivery through these robots. In [2], the use of an autonomous mobile
robot guided by GPS for the delivery of packages is proposed, and in [3], a robot that
monitors the temperature and the distance of people in public places is presented.
Planar cable-driven parallel robots (CDPR) have also been used as tools for the medical
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. treatment of people. Among the reported works, in [4], a robot equipped with Hall effect
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. sensors is presented, which allows estimating the position in real-time of an endoscopic
This article is an open access article capsule that moves in the intestine of a person during a clinical procedure. In [5], a recon-
distributed under the terms and figurable planar CDPR is designed for the rehabilitation of the lower extremities in the
conditions of the Creative Commons wrench-closure gait trajectory. In [6], a three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) CDPR is studied in
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// different types of rehabilitation strategies for upper limbs that have lost motor skills due to
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ cardiovascular conditions.
4.0/).

Robotics 2021, 10, 111. https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics10040111 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics

Robotics 2021, 10, 111 2 of 17

One of the main advantages of planar CDPRs is their ease of adaptation to large
vertical work areas, especially those with a flat topology. Considering the approach of
the present work that involves movements of the robot on surfaces of hospital buildings,
three important aspects to take into account can be highlighted: the implementation in
large surfaces of movement, the planning of trajectories and a stage/process of disinfection
inside of the end effector (EE). A summary of research papers covering these subjects is
presented as follows:
• Implementations in large surfaces of movement
In [7], the use of a scalable robot applied to the construction and/or maintenance
of building facades is proposed. The study includes a prototype of the cable-driven
robot, a prototype of the wall facade and a prototype of a building. In [8], the design
concepts and optimized geometries of a planar CDPR applied to the storage of goods
in racks are presented. Simulations of the system are also developed, and the potential
use of the robot for precise loading and unloading of containers is analyzed. In [9],
a study of logistics robots in the industry is presented, showing a lack of applications
based on CDPR. The Technological Readiness Level (TRL) is used as rank index to
classify current projects using CDPR in storage applications. The TRL index goes
from 1 (for technology in a stage of initial research) to 9 (for technology working in an
operational system). For the twelve cases analyzed, the highest TRL rank identified
by the authors is 5/6.
• Planning of trajectories
An important aspect in robotics is trajectory planning, which can be treated with
different approaches. For example, in [10], a distributed route planning method for
multiple robots using Lagrangian decomposition technique is proposed, which allows
travel of the robots without collision and deadlock. In [11], a space-time network
is proposed to map the robot constraints in the route planning framework and to
generate collision-free routes of the multi-robot system. On the other hand, in [12],
a 6-1-6 polynomial trajectory planner is proposed to allow the movement of a CDPR,
which simulates underwater conditions in an underwater humanoid robot.
• Disinfection using Ultraviolet-C light
Efficiency and simplicity have a great influence when choosing the best method for
the disinfection of materials. The ultraviolet light disinfection technique has been
reported in numerous research papers, some of which describe its characteristics
and advantages. In [13], a device with Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light is used to disinfect
mobile phones. The disinfection cycle lasts 30 s, after which a reduction of pathogenic
and total bacteria in a range of 90–99% is achieved. In [14], a low-cost sterilizer box
using UV light is proposed as protection against COVID-19. In [15], the efficacy
between UV-C light, with a wavelength of 254 nm, and pulsed xenon ultraviolet
(PX-UV) light, with a wavelength between 100 and 280 nm, is compared in hospital
rooms at a distance of 1.2 m from the objective to be disinfected, determining that the
UV-C efficiency is greater. Another example can be found in [16], where the design
of a device that is placed as a wrist strap is presented for the disinfection of hands
and held objects. A control system is integrated into the UV-C emitter head, which
regulates the intensity and duration of the UV-C radiation. On the other hand, in [17],
a complete study about the advantages and limitations of UV-C radiation applied to
the disinfection of foods is presented.
Considering the health emergency caused by COVID-19, in this work, we propose a
simulation study for the use of a planar CDPR transporting supplies in hospital buildings
whose room layouts allow access from the outside of the facade of the rooms. The proposed
robot must follow defined trajectories that will allow linear movement between the supply
position and the chosen room position. The system also considers an end effector that
performs disinfection using UV-C light during its journey, allowing a reduction in the risk
of contagion of the disease. The research major contributions are: a novel use of a known
robot topology, the design of an end effector that can disinfect the supplies put inside it by
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 3 of 17

UV light, the programming of the trajectories so that the EE does not rotate, the modeling
of the robot dynamics and the wind disturbances acting on the robot.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Mechanical Structure of the Proposed Planar CDPR
Figure 1 shows the simplified diagram of the mechanical structure of the proposed
planar CDPR. Its fixed structure houses the pulleys that guide the cables that make up
the robot’s extremities. The cables are independently connected at one end to an actuator
(electric motor) that wind or unwind them according to the requirements of the control
system, and at the other end, they are anchored to a mobile structure considered the
operating end or end effector of the robot. The labels shown in the mechanism in Figure 1
correspond to:
• A1, A2, A3 and A4: cable guide pulleys and anchor points on fixed structure;
• EE: end effector;
• B: robot base defined by the horizontal distance between pulleys;
• H: robot height defined by the vertical distance between pulleys.
The origin of the X − Y system of axes is at the bottom left of the structure. Vector Ŝi
represents the direction along the i-th cable, N̂i represent a normal direction respect to the
8 7 6 5 4
i-th cable, and αi is the angle between X-axis and Ŝi .

D A1 A2

Cable1 Cable2

EE

H
C

Cable3 Li
Y Cable4
g
^
Ni ^
Si
A3 A4
i
X
O
B
B
Figure 1. Simplified scheme of the mechanical structure for the proposed planar CDPR.

The working area of the robot’s EE can theoretically be considered the area between the
ends of the pulley’s support structure; however, in practice, it will be reduced depending
on different mechanical and control factors, one of which may be the maximum tension in
the cables. The dimensions of the robot are directly related to the dimensions of the facade
surface, where the rooms of the health center are located. For this study, a hypothetical
case is considered based on one hospital building, which has 10 floors, of which the upper
A
8 have 7 rooms located cross-wise on the facade. The end effector will have access to
56 rooms, as shown in Figure 2. The dimensions correspond to a base of 40 m by a height

8 7 6 5 4
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 4 of 17

of 30 m, and each room has specific coordinates. For example, the room numbered as “6”
would have the coordinates [x6 , y6 ] = [7.125 m, 3.5 m]; meanwhile, the supply point is
located in the lower central part of the building and is set as the coordinates origin.

Figure 2. Scheme of the facade of the hospital building.

Taking into account the tasks that the robot will develop, which include the transport of
supplies, food, medicines and clothing, a maximum load capacity of 40 kg was considered.
Additionally, an EE weight of 10 kg is considered, which is estimated from the EE design
dimensions and considering a structure of light and resistant material, such as injected
plastic and aluminum, in addition to the weight of batteries and electronic elements for the
LED light, transmission of data and position sensing. The final design of the EE would have
an estimated total weight of 50 kg, and the details of its design are given in Section 2.4.
In Figure 3a,b, detailed views of the planar CDPR attached to the facade of the
hypothetical hospital building are shown. In each figure, a perspective for different
positions of the end effector can be seen, namely: the EE positioning in room 11 in Figure 3a
and the EE positioning in room 50 in Figure 3b.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 5 of 17

(a)

(b)
Figure 3. Detailed views of the planar CDPR attached to the facade of the hospital building. (a) End
effector positioning in room 11. (b) End effector positioning in room 50.

To be able to carry out the simulations, the dynamic model of the system is required,
in which the external forces in the EE, the weight of the EE, the friction damping forces of
the environment where the robot works and the forces developed in the robot cables are
taken into account [18,19]. The resulting model is described by Equations (1)–(4), where
Equations (1) and (2) describe the forces in axes x and y, respectively, acting on the EE.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 6 of 17

Inside these equations, the intermediate terms Pi and Qi are defined, which are, in turn,
developed in Equations (3) and (4) [18].
4
f d x − Bd ẋG − ∑ {(τi − Pi )Six + Qi Siy } = M ẍG , (1)
i =1

4
f dy + M gy − Bd ẏG − ∑ {(τi − Pi )Siy + Qi Six } = MÿG , (2)
i =1

where
1
Pi = ρm ( Li gS − Li L̈i + ( Li α̇i )2 ), (3)
2
1 3 1
Qi = ρm ( Li g N − Li L̇i α̇i − L2i α̈i ) (4)
2 4 3
The different forces applied to the EE correspond to: external forces ( f d x , f dy ), gravi-
tational forces (M gy ), forces developed in the EE due to its acceleration (M ẍG , M ÿG ) and
damping forces due to friction in the environment where the robot moves (Bd ẋG , Bd ẏG ).
The cables are actuated by means of the forces impressed by the actuators. The cables
have constant density ρm and are actuated by forces τi . L̇i is the recollection or extension
speed, and α̇i is the angular speed in each wire. The speed of the cable’s center of mass
is composed by a longitudinal component in direction Ŝi and a normal component in
direction N̂i .
To develop the simulations, the robot has been modeled with MATLAB/Simscape, as
shown in the block scheme of Figure 4. This software allows the simulation of mechanisms
assembled with physical components available in its library, which includes mechanical
properties, such as inertia, friction, the action of gravity, among others. The scheme of the
proposed CDPR operating on the facade of the hospital building is depicted in Figure 2.
For this exemplary implementation, the coordinates origin is set in the lower central part
of the building.

Figure 4. Block scheme of proposed planar CDPR prototype model implemented in MAT-
LAB/Simscape.

2.2. Position Control Topology

For this application, a position control topology is required [20], which can be treated
in two ways: one referring to joint space (by using encoders in the motors and/or in the
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 7 of 17

pulleys) and the other referring to task space (by using absolute position measurements).
To ensure the best positioning of the EE, the position control in the task space is used, in
which the absolute position of the EE is directly fed back. To measure this position, an
inertial measurement unit (IMU) arranged in the EE is proposed, the data of which will be
transmitted by a Wi-Fi wireless module. It should be noted that the IMU takes the initial
reference values of the robot’s home position as input for the estimation of the absolute
position during the movement. This information would be refreshed every time the robot
is positioned at home. The general block diagram for the control topology is shown in
Figure 5.

Figure 5. General scheme for the position control topology for a parallel robot, considering its action
in the task space. Adapted from Ref. [19].

Regarding the structures of the control topologies used in robotics, these can be
designed as coupled or uncoupled, depending on the feasibility [20,21]. For the case of the
CDPR in Figure 1, a decoupled control structure is proposed for each axis of action of the
EE [19], and its scheme is observed in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Block diagram of the implementation in MATLAB/Simulink of the decoupled control

structure for the positioning and orientation of the proposed planar CDPR.

2.3. Trajectory Planning

The next aspect to consider in the control design is the trajectory planning, which
allows determining the sequence of positions that the robot’s EE will travel and must meet
smoothness and continuity requirements [22]. These requirements must also be met by
speed, acceleration and jerk functions. Many forms of trajectory planners can be found
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 8 of 17

in the literature, among them are the interpolating polynomials that allow meeting the
previous requirements of continuity and smoothness. Considering that the jerk corresponds
to the third derivative of the position, its smoothness and continuity will be guaranteed
with the choice of polynomials of the fourth order (or higher) in the start and end stages of
the trajectory, while, in the central stage, it could be used at the rated speed of the actuators,
so a first order polynomial could be chosen. Consequently, the basic and minimum
structure of the interpolating polynomials would be a 4-1-4 structure to meet the previously
described requirements.
One approach that can be used for planning is the use of the polynomial trajectory
6-1-6 [23], which consists of a polynomial sequence composed of a sixth-order polynomial
in the acceleration and deceleration sections, linked with a polynomial of order one in the
central section, which guarantees a constant speed. This generic 6-1-6 polynomial structure
is represented by equations [12]:

vmax 6 vmax 5 vmax 4

h A (t) = t − 3 4 t5 + t + X0 , (5)
t5ac t ac 2 t3ac
vmax t ac
h B (t) = vmax t + + X0 , (6)
2
3
hC (t) = −h A (t) + vmax t + (tt − t ac )vmax + 2X0 (7)
2
The values are considered along each axis of the robot, being:
• h A , h B and hC : positions reached during the sections of acceleration, constant speed
and deceleration, respectively;
• vmax : maximum speed that can be developed;
• t ac : acceleration and deceleration time;
• tt: total time required to develop the whole trajectory.
The execution time of a trajectory depends on three important aspects:
• Maximum speed to be developed in the EE of the robot, which will be related with
the dimensioning of the actuators;
• Time required for the disinfection of the transported supplies;
• Distance between the supply point and the target room.
In this design, the disinfection process is set to 30 s [13]. If the duration of the planned
trajectory from the supply point to the destination point is less than the disinfection time,
the duration of the trajectory is extended to assure the disinfection process is completed.
The same consideration is applied for the time of the return trajectory. The trajectory
planner block is shown in Figure 7.
The planned trajectory in axes X and Y, along which the robot’s EE moves from the
supply point towards a room, will be as shown in Figure 8, in which a minimum time
of 5 s is considered to collect the supplies in the room prior to the automatic return of
the EE to the supply point. This time is automatically extended while the door of the EE
remains open. The initial coordinates of the trajectory correspond to the supply point
[x0 , x0 ] = [0 m, 0 m] and, as an example of analysis, the coordinates of room 6 will be used,
which are [x6 , y6 ] = [7.125 m, 3.5 m]. The orientation reference of the end effector is 0°,
to guarantee that no rotational movements are developed, avoiding the displacement of
objects inside the EE.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 9 of 17

Figure 7. Block diagram of the trajectory planner for the planar CDPR, developed in MAT-
LAB/Simulink.

Figure 8. Example of planned trajectories for the xG and y G positions of the center of mass and for
the orientation of the EE of the planar CDPR.

2.4. Structure of the Disinfection System

For the design of the robot’s EE, typical dimensions were taken into account for the
supplies to be transported for a person in isolation, such as clothing, medicines, food,
personal hygiene products, etc. Figure 9a shows the cubic design of the EE, where each
edge measures 60 cm. A disinfection system has been included using UV LEDs arranged
on the internal walls of the EE, as shown in the detail A of Figure 9a. There are many
models of UV LEDs from different manufacturers with relatively low costs. For example,
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 10 of 17

the CS63CUV365C from ChromeLED is a UV LED in a 0603 surface mount package with
a 150-degree viewing angle. With 72 units of this LED covering the whole inside surface
of the EE, a total power of 8 W is required when all LEDs are on. As mentioned in the
previous section, the light exposure time will be at least 30 s. To power the LED system, a
battery is incorporated into the lower part of the EE, which will be recharged when the
robot is at the supply point. For this, a pair of terminals are included in the lower part of
the EE, which are shown in detail in Figure 9b.
Regarding cable anchor points, the use of duplicate cables is proposed to improve
stability against movements transversal to the work plane [8]. This aspect of the design is
shown in details F and G of Figure 9a for the case of the anchor points of the upper cables,
and in details L and M of Figure 9b for the case of the lower cables. In this way, the upper
cables are mainly responsible for the proper positioning of the EE, while the lower cables
fulfill the function of keeping the EE without rotation, improving its stability [24].

(a)

(b)
Figure 9. Top and bottom views for the end effector. (a) Proposed design for the end effector.
(b) Detail of the design of the battery recharging terminals at the bottom of the end effector.

3. Results
The implementation in MATLAB/Simulink of the proposed control system allows
evaluating the robot movements and integrates the stages of: trajectory planning, position
control stage and the dynamic model of the planar CDPR. The general block diagram of
the implementation is shown in Figure 10.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 11 of 17

Figure 10. Integrated trajectory planning, control system and dynamic model for the planar CDPR,
developed in MATLAB/Simulink.

General Process of Operation of the Robot during the Transport of Supplies

To control the robot, it is necessary to have predefined the paths that it must follow,
for which, based on the polynomial structure 6-1-6, the following parameters are assigned
to the planning block:
• Starting point of the route: corresponds to the coordinates of the supply point where
the EE receives the load to be transported.
• Destination point: refers to the position of the room where the transported supplies
will be delivered.
• Disinfection time: corresponds to the time in which the disinfection system must act;
this time is included within the movement time of the robot, being able to affect its
movement speed to guarantee the required time of exposure to UV-C light.
• Waiting time in room: allows supplies to be collected and/or deposited by the user
within the EE.
After a delivery or reception in the room, the trajectory planner allows developing the
automatic return route of the robot to the supply point. Figure 8 shows the planned path
for the robot’s movement from a supply point to a destination point and its return to the
supply point.
The motion control scheme of each axis using a decoupled structure is shown in
Figure 11. According to [19], the controllers can be classic PIDs or Fuzzy-PID controllers.
For this case, and aware of the high non-linearities of the system, the use of Fuzzy-PID
controllers is proposed since their ease of tuning and the fact that it is not required to know
the mathematical model of the plant. For its tuning, the technique reported in [19] is used.

Figure 11. Motion control scheme for each axis using a decoupled structure [19].
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 12 of 17

Considering that the robot operates outdoors, disturbing effects on the position of the
EE, mainly due to wind, are considered. There are many approaches to obtain wind models,
such as deterministic, stochastic and hybrid, presenting each of them advantages and draw-
backs depending on the specific application. In this study, the wind model proposed in [25]
is used, which implements a general stochastic synthesis of geophysical processes that
enable a good approximation to almost any type of dependence and marginal distribution
function of real process. For the example of wind speed, the authors check the validity of the
model against real data of wind speed obtained from a database of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity (www.me.jhu.edu/meneveau/datasets/datamap.html, accessed on 23 July 2021).
The complete derivation of the model is omitted here for the sake of simplicity, but the
details can be obtained in Section 4.3 of [25]. To obtain the output data of wind, the model
requires five input parameters: mean (µ), standard deviation (σ), skewness (Cs ), kurtosis
(Ck ) and a Hurst parameter (H) required in the Hurst–Kolomogorov process used in the
proposed model. From experimental measures of wind speed, the following values are
set: µ = 4 m/s, σ = 2.2 m/s, Cs = 1.45 and Ck = 5.1. For the Hurst parameter, a value
of H = 0.75 is used, as suggested by the authors of [25]. The model is set to obtain the
equivalent of 60 s of wind speed data, and the resulting profile is shown in Figure 12a.
From this profile, the forces exerted by the wind on the cables and the EE can be
obtained as:
1
Fw = ρ A f cd v2wind , (8)
2
where ρ is the density of the air (1.2 kg/m3 for air at normal temperature and pressure);
A f is the frontal area of the CDPR; and cd is the drag coefficient, which depends on the
geometry of the EE, diameter and longitude of the cables, Reynolds number, among others
parameters. If a wind speed direction normal to the X − Y plane is assumed, the drag
coefficient for the EE can be obtained from [26], approximating the geometry of the EE as a
cube, resulting in cd = 2.05. The frontal area for the EE considering sides of 0.6 m results
in A f = 0.36 m2 . For the cables, a cylindrical shape can be used as a good approximation,
and for the calculation of the front area, the diameter and longitude of the cable is required.
Considering the structure of the hospital building used as an example in this work and
supposing the CDPR in the coordinates origin, the combined exposed longitude of the
cables will be 112 m. This longitude will vary for other positions of the CDPR; for example,
if the CDPR is in the center of the working area (approximately in between of rooms 25
and 32), the combined exposed longitude will be 100 m. For the CDPR operating in the
corners of the working area (for example room 50), the combined exposed longitude will
be 120 m. If a mean value of 112 m is used for the longitude and a diameter of 4 mm is
considered, the frontal area results in A f = 0.448 m2 . The drag coefficient can be obtained
again from [26], resulting in cd = 1.1. Applying Equation (8), the expressions relating wind
speed and exerted forces in the EE and in the cables result in:

FwEE = 0.443 v2wind , (9)

Fwcables = 0.296 v2wind (10)

Using the profile of wind speed shown in Figure 12a, the forces acting on the CDPR
are calculated and shown in Figure 12b.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 13 of 17

6
Wind speed [m/s]

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time [s]
(a)
25

20
Wind force [N]

15

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time [s]
(b)
Figure 12. Wind speed profile and resulting forces applied as a disturbance to the planar CDPR.
(a) Wind speed profile obtained from the stochastic model. (b) Resulting forces due to wind.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 14 of 17

These forces are applied as disturbance to the model of the planar CDPR shown in
Figure 4 and the simulated result for this example case is shown in Figure 13.
Additionally, the following parameters have been set to test the system:
• Starting point of the route: [x0 , x0 ] = [0 m, 0 m], which is set in the bottom center of
the facade.
• Destination point: [x6 , x6 ] = [7.125 m, 3.5 m] considering room 6 as an example.
• Disinfection time: 30 s based on [13].
• Waiting time in room: 5 s.

Figure 13. Response of the robot for the task of transporting to a room and its return to the point
of supply.

It can be seen that the positions of xG and yG closely track the planned reference
trajectories imposed by the trajectory planner block, and the controller performance shows
a rejection of the applied disturbances. The same response shown in Figure 13 is also
depicted in Figure 14 but represented in an X − Y plane.

Figure 14. The same response shown in Figure 13 represented in an X − Y plane.

Robotics 2021, 10, 111 15 of 17

4. Discussion
In Figure 13, it can be seen that the movement from the supply point to the robot’s
destination point allows the time set for disinfection to be covered. After reaching the
target position, the robot is parked for a minimum time of 5 s. As previously described, as
long as the door to the EE is open, the robot will remain in the room. The return path of the
robot also makes it possible to complete the disinfection process, taking into account that
after an interaction with the user of the room, a new disinfection of the supplies that are
sent to the supply point is necessary. Figure 15 zooms in on the tracking responses shown
in Figure 13. At the beginning of the trajectory, a greater tracking error is observed in the
yG variable, which is due to the action of gravity. For the same reason, the disturbance
mostly affects the trajectory in the direction of the Y axis. The error has a maximum value
of approximately 0.15 m, although when considering the dimensions of the total working
area of the CDPR, it can be considered a minor effect.

Figure 15. Detailed view of the initial phase of the robot’s response for the task of transporting to
a room.

5. Conclusions
This research work proposes a transportation alternative for health treatment facilities
that helps to reduce the spread of contagious diseases, such as COVID-19. Its implementa-
tion is relatively inexpensive and fast as it requires minimal architectural intervention in
buildings for the adaptation of pulley supports for the robot cables. Additionally, a wide
work area can be covered, and its dimensions can be changed by redesigning the length of
the robot cables.
The proposed transport of supplies includes disinfection during the robot’s movement
path, eliminating the additional time required for this process when it is carried out in a
traditional way by human operators. The use of the robot reduces the risk of contagion
between the operators and the recipients who are in the rooms since contact or closeness
between people is eliminated; at the same time, the traffic by stairs or corridors of those
who transport or provide supplies is reduced or eliminated.
To summarize, the major contributions of this paper are: a novel application of a
planar CDPR for transporting supplies in hospital buildings; the disinfection of the supplies
carried inside the end effector by using ultraviolet light; the programming of trajectories in
such a way that the time it takes to go through them is enough for the disinfection process
and so that the end effector does not rotate, thus maintaining the object’s stability; the test
of control loops on a dynamic model of the whole system, which includes: the mass of
cables, end effector, supplies and lengths of cables for a target facade of 40 m wide and
30 m high; and the rejection of disturbances caused by wind gusts on the cables and the
end effector.
Robotics 2021, 10, 111 16 of 17

This work will be complemented by other investigations currently in progress, which

will cover in greater detail aspects related to the parking of the end effector, the design
of the battery recharging terminals, the anchors and the number of cables, among other
topics. Furthermore, future works will include the modeling of more weather effects and
the corresponding control action response.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, M.C. and R.S.; Methodology, M.C., R.S. and C.G.; Investi-
gation, M.C., J.G. and J.V.; Software, R.S., C.G. and M.C.; Writing—Review and Editing, M.C., C.C.,
J.G., J.C. and J.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was supported by: The Spanish Government Projects under Grant DPI2014-
57220-C2-1-P, Grant PGC2018-095939-B-I00, in part by the “RoboCity2030 DIH-CM Madrid Robotics
Digital Innovation Hub, S2018/NMT-4331” and funded by the “Programas Actividades I+D en la
Comunidad de Madrid”, in part by Structural Funds of the EU and the GIIRA research group at
Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Ecuador.
Acknowledgments: The authors want to thank to the health specialists for the valuable contributions
to this research: María Angélica Orellana González, Pneumology Specialist, Head of the Pneumology
Unit and responsible of the COVID-19 area, 6th floor of the Hospital de Especialidades José Carrasco
Arteaga, IESS. Cuenca, Ecuador. Diego Xavier Carpio López, General Practitioner, Resident Physician
of the Infectology COVID-19 Area at the Hospital de Especialidades José Carrasco Arteaga, IESS.
Cuenca, Ecuador.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design
of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript,
or in the decision to publish the results.

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