This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop the next generation tool for enlarging sculpture in a studio setting. Traditionally artists are trained to enlarge by eye, to use 3D Cartesian grids, pointing machines, and 3D pantographs. These traditional tools are time consuming and cumbersome. Artists today do get involved with modern digital cutting technology, those processes are expensive, have lengthy turnaround offsite interaction with computer technicians and engineers, are needlessly accurate for typical art foundry applications, and are not user friendly. This project will develop a remote positioning and cutting tool, RPACT-1, which is sufficiently accurate, is in-house (studio), has immediate turnaround time, inexpensive to build and operate, delivers real time performance and is user friendly for any studio artist to use immediately with no specialized computer skills. The RPACT-1 is designed for use by studio trained artists for enlargements of the type used in a typical bronze art foundry. The broader (commercial) impact of this project will be a tool for enlarging sculpture to gain a commercial advantage as technology encroaches in art markets. Art enriches the fabric of society. This RPACT-1 project will create opportunities for art fabricators to produce architectural size sculpture customized to specific sites and smaller budgets. RPACT-1 represents a new cable-suspended passive robotic device designed for a human operator. RPACT-1 is a positive contribution to the low mass parallel manipulator technology. It implements a new active cable tensioning approach to ensure positive cable tension.
