They designed the cables to go down into the room, instead of from the ceiling - seems like that is a deal breaker for most environments actually, because you need the whole room to have open space just to drop it to the floor all over.

They say they use 4 actuators, but if they only used 3, this problem would be solved.

Instead of independently controlling all four lines, you can join the lines leaving each corner unit and then just move the line left or right instead of reeling two different lines in and out. You still use the corner eye loops, and you use two cables that are X+Y in length. This allows you to pick a point on the ceiling. Then a third actuator and line in the gripper itself could lower itself to the floor.

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cloudfudge 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If I understand what you're suggesting, wouldn't this result in a lot more swinging since the gripper would be suspended from a single point directly above it?

	▲	swid 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You seem to. That is a good point I hadn't considered - the tension from the sides holds it in place. Maybe we need to use a telescoping arm (which doesn't seem practical, I'm mostly joking). It might still work, but I imagine if you don't grab it on the first try, you may have to go back to the ceiling. And hope there are no strong drafts in the room. EDIT: maybe lower it on three lines instead of one?
	▲	CyLith 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That too is a solvable problem if you have the sensors for it. You can critically damp or choose a motion profile to have essentially no swing.

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carb an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

How do you prevent having to grab things perfectly in their center of mass? (Because that requirement seems limiting)

Rigid objects would result in the gripper twisting, but the current design could offset some of that by pulling harder in one direction?

	▲	swid an hour ago \| parent [-]
		With the video, it is casually dropping things like clothes and toys into a bucket, so I'm not sure it would be a big deal. But you could also lower it via three lines instead of one, so there is something to counteract that.