An Inverse Kinematic Code for Cable-Driven Parallel Robots Considering Cable Sagging and Pulleys

A key advantage of cable-driven parallel robots, compared to other robot types, is their large workspace. Despite this fact, experiments in previous works have shown that cable-driven parallel robots often cannot fully realize their theoretically estimated workspace in practice. To remedy this shortcoming, a new inverse kinematic code is developed which considers the previously neglected effects of both cable sagging and pulleys. For a realistic exemplary robot, the new kinematic code yields a 19.5% larger wrench-feasible workspace volume for the catenary-pulley model than previous codes. This result shows that the effects of cable sagging and pulleys should be considered in the kinematic codes, especially for large cable-driven parallel robots.