Cable-driven parallel robot with reconfigurable end effector controlled with a compliant actuator

Redundancy in cable-driven parallel robots provides additional degrees of freedom that can be used to achieve different objectives. In this robot, this degree of freedom is used to act on a reconfigurable end effector with one degree of freedom. A compliant actuator actuated by one motor exerts force on both bodies of the platform. Due to the high tension that appears in this cable in comparison with the rest of the cables, an elastic model was developed for solving the kinestostatic and wrench analysis. A linear sensor was used in one branch of this cable mechanism to provide the needed intermediate values. The position of one link of the platform was fixed in order to focus this analysis on the relationship between the cables and the platform’s internal movement. Position values of the reconfigurable end effector were calculated and measured as well as the tension at different regions of the compliant actuator. The theoretical values were compared with dynamic simulations and real prototype results.