Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Tension reduction method for a modular cable-driven robotic arm with co-shared cables

  • Original Research Paper
  • Published:
Intelligent Service Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper focuses on the tension reduction method for a Modular Cable-Driven Robotic Arm (MCDRA) that consists of a number of 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) cable-driven joint modules. The MCDRA has implemented a cable routing scheme in which every two adjacent modules co-share one driving cable in order to reduce the number of cables to the minimum required. To investigate the tension distribution of the cables, a new tension analysis algorithm is proposed, in which the cable tension is decomposed into the load-carrying tension and the internal tension. It is revealed that the MCDRA with alternatively co-shared driving cables has inevitable internal tensions, which results in tension magnification. To reduce the cable tensions, the MCDRA is modified by adding two revolute joints with one connected to the base and the other one placed at its distal end. By rotating the base-mounted revolute joint and controlling each of the joints as well as the revolute joint on the distal end accordingly, the modified MCDRA can rotate like a universal joint chain and keep the end-effector pose unchanged. A global optimization algorithm based on interval analysis is proposed to find the optimal rotation angle of the base-mounted revolute joint that produces the lowest cable tensions. The effectiveness of the cable tension reduction method is validated through both simulation and experimental studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Case JC, White EL, Sunspiral V, Kramer-Bottiglio R (2018) Reducing actuator requirements in continuum robots through optimized cable routing. Soft Robotics 5(1):109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ceccarelli M, Lim W, Yang G, Yeo S, Mustafa S (2012) Modular cable-driven robotic arms for intrinsically safe manipulation. In: Service robots and robotics, pp 274–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-0291-5.ch015

  3. Gosselin C, Grenier M (2011) On the determination of the force distribution inoverconstrained cable-driven parallel mechanisms. Meccanica 46(1):3–15

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Gouttefarde M, Lamaury J, Reichert C, Bruckmann T (2015) A versatile tension distribution algorithm for \(n\)-dof parallel robots driven by \(n+2\) cables. IEEE Trans Robotics 31(6):1444–1457. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2015.2495005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lau D, Oetomo D (2016) Conditions on the cable-routing matrix for wrench closure of multilink cable-driven manipulators. J Mech Des 75(7):1000–6

    Google Scholar 

  6. Lau D, Oetomo D, Halgamuge SK (2013) Generalized modeling of multilink cable-driven manipulators with arbitrary routing using the cable-routing matrix. IEEE Trans Robotics 29(5):1102–1113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu P, Qiu Y, Su Y, Chang J (2014) On the minimum cable tensions for the cable-based parallel robots. J Appl Math 2014:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  8. Moore RE (1966) Interval analysis. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Moore RE, Kearfott RB, Cloud MJ (2009) Introduction to interval analysis. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, USA

  10. Mustafa SK, Agrawal SK (2011) Reciprocal screw-based force-closure of an n-dof open chain: minimum number of cables required to fully constrain it. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, pp 3029–3034 (2011)

  11. Mustafa SK, Agrawal SK (2012) On the force-closure analysis of n-dof cable-driven open chains based on reciprocal screw theory. IEEE Trans Robotics 28(1):22–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Mustafa SK, Lim WB, Yang G, Yeo SH, Lin W, Agrawal SK (2013) Cable-driven robots. Springer, London, pp 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4976-7_101-1

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Rezazadeh S, Behzadipour S (2011) Workspace analysis of multibody cable-driven mechanisms. J Mech Robotics 3(2):021005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Wang Y, Yang G, Zheng T, Yang K, Lau, D (2018) Force-closure workspace analysis for modular cable-driven manipulators with co-shared driving cables. In: 2018 13th IEEE conference on industrial electronics and applications (ICIEA), pp 1504–1509. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIEA.2018.8397947

  15. Wang Y, Song C, Zheng T, Lau D, Yang K, Yang G (2019) Cable routing design and performance evaluation for multi-link cable-driven robots with minimal number of actuating cables. IEEE Access 7:135790–135800. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2924982

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Xue F, Fan Y, Fan Z (2020) Design and kinematics analysis for a cable-driven underwater snake arm robot. J Phys Conf Ser 1654(1):012028 (6 pp)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Yang G, Lin W, Mustafa S, Pham B, Yeo S (2005) Kinematic design of a 7-dof cable-driven humanoid arm: a solution-in-nature approach. In: IEEE/ASME international conference on advanced intelligent mechatronics, pp 444–449. https://doi.org/10.1109/AIM.2005.1501031

Download references

Funding

This paper is funded by the NSFC-Zhejiang Joint Grant (Grant Number U1909215), NSFC grant (Grant Number 92048201), and the Ningbo Key Project of Science and Technology Innovation 2025 (Grant Number 2018B10058, 2018B10068 and 2018B10069).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Wang, Guilin Yang, Tianjiang Zheng, Wenjun Shen, Zaojun Fang & Chi Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Wang, Guilin Yang, Tianjiang Zheng, Wenjun Shen, Zaojun Fang & Chi Zhang

  3. Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing Equipment Technology and Engineering, Ningbo, 315201, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Wang, Guilin Yang, Tianjiang Zheng, Wenjun Shen, Zaojun Fang & Chi Zhang

Authors
  1. Yi Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Guilin Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tianjiang Zheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Wenjun Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Zaojun Fang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Chi Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guilin Yang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, Y., Yang, G., Zheng, T. et al. Tension reduction method for a modular cable-driven robotic arm with co-shared cables. Intel Serv Robotics 15, 27–38 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-021-00399-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-021-00399-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation