Geometric Determination of the Cable-Cylinder Interference Regions in the Workspace of a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot

Abstract

Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) are a type of parallel robots that have the particularity of using cables as legs. CDPRs have several advantages such as large workspaces, high acceleration and high payload capacity. However, CDPRs present also some drawbacks such as the possible collisions between their cables and environment. Therefore, this paper is about the geometric determination of the cable-cylinder interference regions in the workspace of a CDPR. The cables are considered massless and straight. Then, the boundaries of the interference regions onto the cylinder form a closed loop composed of arcs and straight line segments that can be expressed symbolically. Those geometric entities generate truncated cones and planes corresponding to the boundaries of the volume of interferences. Finally, a methodology is described to trace the cable-cylinder interference free constant orientation workspace of CDPRs.

Variable-Structure Cable-Driven Parallel Robots

“…Several studies have produced methods for detecting cable collisions with both environmental obstacles and other cables [62][63][64][65]. In studies such as [14,17,18], the idea of a 'collision-free workspace' is discussed along with methods for its computation.…”

Cable-Driven Parallel Robot Actuators: State of the Art and Novel Servo-Winch Concept

“…In this case, workspace accessibility may be improved by suspending the EE, using a redundant number of cables [8,9]. Regardless, the likelihood of cable-to-cable interference could increase [10]. Therefore, in order to simplify the design and rationalize the cost of the robot, simpler suspended CDPR have been proposed, with fewer cables than EE's DoFs, which, on the other hand, require dedicated control schemes for their effective use since the EE is unconstrained [11,12].…”

Continuous Collision Detection for a Robotic Arm Mounted on a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot

“…Fast heuristic approaches are proposed in [7] whereas certified calculations based on interval analysis are introduced in [5], [6]. Besides, an approximate determination of the volume swept by a cable when the mobile platform of a CDPR moves within a prescribed workspace is discussed in [8] and the geometric determination of cablecylinder collision loci within the workspace of a CDPR is dealt with in [9]. In the latter, the cylinder is a fixed object located inside the CDPR workspace.…”