Wrench-feasible workspace generation for cable-driven robots

• Published in: IEEE transactions on robotics Vol. 22; no. 5; pp. 890 - 902
• Main Authors: Bosscher, P., Riechel, A.T., Ebert-Uphoff, I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.10.2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Boundaries; Cable robot; Cables; Cameras; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control theory. Systems; Drives; Electromagnets; Engineering profession; Exact sciences and technology; Exact solutions; Feasibility; Grippers; Haptic interfaces; Interference; Linkage mechanisms, cams; Manipulation; Manipulators; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Mechanical engineering. Machine design; Mechanical properties; Miscellaneous; Mobile robots; Robot vision systems; Robotics; Robots; Studies; workspace generation; wrench set; wrench-feasible; Wrenches; Cable; Feasibility; Point mass; Planar mechanism; Robotics; Workspace
• ISSN: 1552-3098; 1941-0468
• DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2006.878967

This paper presents a method for analytically generating the boundaries of the wrench-feasible workspace (WFW) for cable robots. This method uses the available net wrench set, which is the set of all wrenches that a cable robot can apply to its surroundings without violating tension limits in the cables. The geometric properties of this set permit calculation of the boundaries of the WFW for planar, spatial, and point-mass cable robots. Complete analytical expressions for the WFW boundaries are detailed for a planar cable robot and a spatial point-mass cable robot. The analytically determined boundaries are verified by comparison with numerical results. Based on this, several workspace properties are shown for point-mass cable robots. Finally, it is shown how this workspace-generation approach can be used to analytically formulate other workspaces