Potential Energy Distribution of Redundant Cable-Driven Robot Applied to Compliant Grippers: Method and Computational Analysis

Cable-driven parallel robots with a redundant configuration have infinite solutions for their cable tension distribution to provide a specific wrench to the end-effector. Redundancy is commonly used to increase the workspace and stiffness or to achieve secondary objectives like energetic minimization or additional movements. This article presents a method based on energy distribution to handle the redundancy of cable-driven parallel robots. This method allows the deformation and tension of each link to be related to the total energy available in the parallel robot. The study of energy distribution expression allows deformation, tension, and position to be combined. It also defines the range of tension and deformation that cables can achieve without altering the wrench exerted on the end-effector. This range is used with a passive reconfigurable end-effector to control the position of two grippers attached to some cables which act as compliant actuators. The relationship between the actuators' energy and their corresponding gripper positions is also provided. In this way, energy measurement from the actuators allows the grasping state to be sensed. The results are validated using multibody dynamic software.