Addition of Springs and its Impact on Cable-Driven Serial Manipulators

Serial multi-body systems can be driven by cables routed through the links to achieve the desired range of motion. Placement and routing of the cables alter the performance characteristics of the manipulator. There are possible applications for such mechanisms where low moving inertia is required. One of the challenges in the design of cable-driven mechanisms is to keep cables in tension during the motion. In this article, the addition of springs and its impact on workspace is investigated. A 2-link cable-driven robot is used to illustrate changes in Wrench Feasible Workspace (WFW) as springs are added between the serial manipulator and the ground or between the links.© 2014 ASME