MAST Telepresence camera tower project

The University of Minnesota's Multi-Axial Subassemblage Testing (MAST) Laboratory is the largest test system of its kind in the world.  It provides a powerful tool for investigating the effects of earthquakes, hurricanes, and other extreme events on large structural components.  We were contracted to provide a set of adjustable height towers that could carry carriages with cameras or other sensors on them.  These carriages could be controlled remotely to travel up and down the towers and capture data at desired locations around the experiment in progress.

The towers used wire rope winches to translate the carriages vertically and cable track protected the cabling going to the cameras and sensors on the carriages.

The towers made their debut at the grand opening of the MAST lab back in 2004.