# Flexible Line Recovery Robot — Build Log

## 2026-09-22 — Engineering/IP package build

### Baseline
- Working/public name: Flexible Line Recovery Robot.
- Category: IP candidate / engineering demonstrator.
- The concept is a physical recovery machine, not a generic AI software product.
- Initial prior-art screening established that broad cable manipulation, untangling, routing and error recovery already exist. The project therefore avoids broad novelty claims and records a narrower combined architecture for formal legal review.

### Completed engineering package
- IP candidate specification V0.1.
- Software architecture V0.1.
- Mechanism specification V0.2.
- Safety architecture V0.1.
- Test and validation plan V0.1.
- Manufacturer specification V0.1.
- IP boundary and prior-art record V0.2.
- Browser-based recovery simulation.
- Public product website.
- Public website upgraded with the product hero visual and links to the engineering documents.
- Build/version records stored in GitHub.

### Core proposed architecture
1. Purpose-built shallow recovery chamber.
2. Distributed compliant guide/grip modules.
3. Line-state graph covering endpoints, segments, crossings, loops and recovery status.
4. Slack-first local manipulation.
5. Module-to-module transfer inside the constrained chamber.
6. Closed-loop verification using geometry and physical response.
7. Rollback to the last verified state after failed manipulation.
8. Downstream straightening and organization path.
9. Interchangeable handling cartridges for defined material classes.

### Validation discipline
The simulation is explicitly treated as an engineering planning demonstrator, not proof of physical performance. The validation plan defines software, bench, chamber and representative-material testing before any performance claims are made.

### Visual production
A photorealistic industrial hero image and supporting engineering scene images have been incorporated into the public product demonstration.

### Product demonstration
The free browser-based product demonstration has been upgraded to show a complete control narrative:
- problem intake;
- sensing and line-state mapping;
- slack-first manipulation;
- verification failure;
- rollback and alternate action;
- successful recovery and organized output.

The demonstration is intentionally presented as an engineering visualization. It is not represented as proof of physical performance and is not described as a generated MP4.

### Video status
A cinematic MP4 product video has not been generated because the connected Runway workspace currently does not provide video-generation access on its Free plan. The current free deliverable is the interactive browser-based product demonstration.

### Prior-art discipline
The current record does not claim that the combined architecture is patentable. Recent screening confirms substantial existing work in robotic cable manipulation, DLO planning and autonomous cable recovery, including MIT cable manipulation, RoboCable, 2025 DLO path planning and 2026 autonomous error recovery research. A formal patent search, claim chart and professional patent review remain required before filing.

## Current status
**Engineering/IP candidate package substantially completed and public demonstration upgraded.**

Remaining external step:
- obtain physical prototype evidence and formal legal IP review;
- generate the cinematic commercial MP4 when video-generation access is available.

## Important
This repository material describes a proposed engineering system. It is not evidence of physical performance, a granted patent, a certification or a legal opinion.