3D Flight System
Overview
Cinnig’s 3D Flight System allows 2D and 3D motion profiles to be designed and flown. The motion profiles may be targeted to cable-suspended flying systems, gantry systems, gimbals, etc. Joystick-based jogging is supported, as is slewing to specified positions.
Flight System Components
The flight system comprises two logical parts: the design studio; and the flight components. The design studio provides a method for designing 2D, and 3D profiles with rapid on-the-day editing and queuing. The flight components run those profiles.
Flight System: Profile Design Studio
The Profile Design Studio includes three separate tools, each running dedicated machines: Profile Designer; Motion Sequencer; and Profile Queuer. Any tool in the Design Studio suite can queue directly to the player. Any edits in one tool automatically refreshes in the other tools for super-fast editing.
Profile Designer 
Motion Sequencer 
Profile Queuer
Design Studio: Profile Designer
The profile designer tool is based on keyframes, connected via bezier curves, to describe the path trajectory. Motion tools set the dynamics along that path. The path dynamics are set using: velocity, acceleration, deceleration and accel/decel jerk-times. Multiple throttle widget overlays, allows more nuanced speed control along the path which stick to path features such as tight curves.
An integral hardware interface enhances the design process and provides a faster, more intuitive means to edit the profile parameters.
Design Studio: Motion Sequencer
The motion sequencer allows multiple profiles and via positions to be spliced together. This allows a complex sequence of moves to be created, such as a loop which takes the fly-point from loading position, to the ‘ones’ position, to play the move, back to ones, and back to the load position — a repeating series of events become seamless. Triggers are automatically inserted between each element by the Operator Console app. The sequencer tool may also be used to simplify the construction of more complex moves by stitching together shorter, more manageable path elements, rather than a single long profile.
The sequencer also enables a number of global changes to the profile. For example, swapping two dimensions or inverting a dimension (useful if an imported profile has the spacial dimensions defined differently). Individual profile elements, or the entire move can be shifted (offset) in three dimensions.
Design Studio: Profile Queuer
The Profile Queuer tool allows all playable files in a folder to previewed in both 3D and timeline views. The correct profile can be identified, inspected, and sent to the player — queued quickly and reliably.
Flight System:
Two types of motion are supported by the flight system: Direct, for gantry and gimbal rigs; and Vector, for cable-suspended riggings. In direct mode, profile positions are sent directly to the actuators, and each dimension operates independently. By contrast, in vector mode, the cable lengths are calculated to hang the fly-point at the target profile position, and it is these lengths that are sent to the actuators (winches).
The flight system components comprises an operator console; axis supervisors fitted to the actuators; and a distribution box (for power, e-stop and communications).
Flight System: Operator Console
The flight console allows profiles created with the profile design suite to be played, and allows the operator to move the fly-point to anywhere within a specified working space. Profiles may be played back at any speed 1-100%, and may be played in browse mode where the joystick throttles the frame rate, from -100% to 100%.
Profiles are read into the console by one of two methods. The operator can use the file manager to read in a profile; or the operator can send a request to the console to read a file from any of the design suite apps (a pushed read). The push read will only take place when the console is idle. If the console is not idle, it will wait until idle, then read in the requested profile.
When a profile is read, any periods in the profile’s timeline where the velocity is zero, is identified as a zero-velocity zone (ZVZ), and ZVZ flags are automatically inserted wherever they occur. The operator may then specify a pause duration, or insert a cue trigger. During playback, when a ZVZ trigger is reached (and so motion has stopped), playback will hold until the operator presses the cue advance button.
In Direct mode, the position of each axis is initialized with a set position. In Vector mode, the set position is a 3D fly-point position. So, once the rigging points have been established, measured and entered into the console, the axes may be jogged, one-by-one, to converge them to a known position, and this set position is entered.
Once the set position has been established, the current fly-point position can be automatically recovered from the winch positions. If, for any reason, the winch cables no longer properly converge to a fly-point, the nearest convergence point will be calculated and the operator will be cued to start a correction move, where the offending winch/winches will be slewed independently into that position.
Axis Supervisor
The axis supervisor (ASup) provides a standard interface for the controller to the actuator driver. Each actuator type requires a specific implementation. Examples of ASup’s implemented to date are for winches, hydraulic and pneumatic valves, and brushless DC motors.
