The cable robot of FAST is the largest flexible-cable-driven parallel robot in the world that spans up to 600m. It is made of 6 sets of drive assemblies, guide pulleys, steel cables, suspension cable cars supporting power & signal cables of the feed cabin, electrical devices and control units.
The cable robot lifts the feed cabin airborne and drives it to move in the so-called focal surface, which is 140m high above the ground, about 206m in aperture, while achieving primary positioning adjustment. This innovative breakthrough of giant single-dish radio telescope to select a flexible and light-weight cable-robot design instead of the traditional rigid-structure design of feed support. The weight of feed platform from nearly 10000 tons to merely 30 tons according to the cable-robot design. Moreover the weakness of wave-shielding almost diminishes.