Reconfiguration strategy for fully actuated translational cable-suspended parallel robots

In Cable-Suspended Parallel Robots (CSPRs), reconfigurability, i.e., the possibility of modifying the position of the cable connection points on the base frame, is particularly interesting to investigate, since it paves the way for future industrial and service applications of CSPRs, where the base frame can also be replaced by mobile agents. This report focuses on fully actuated Translational Reconfigurable CSPRs (TR-CSPRs), i.e., reconfigurable CSPRs with a point mass end-effector driven by three cables. The objective of the work is twofold. First, it is shown that the Wrench Exertion Capability (WEC) performance index can be exploited to identify the configurations of the cable connection points optimizing a task-related performance in a single point or throughout the workspace, and hence to implement a workspace analysis. Then, by referring to the case of a TR-CSPR with a single reconfigurable connection point and in quasi-static working condition, an analytical approach is provided to reconfigure the robot while executing a task to avoid one of the paramount problems of cable robots: cable slackness. Brought together, the two contributions allow defining a reconfiguration strategy for TR-CSPRs. The strategy is presented by applying it to a numerical example of a TR-CSPR used for lifting and moving a load along a prescribed path: the use of the WEC allows analyzing the workspace and predicting if robot reconfigurability makes it possible to pass quasi-statically along all the points of a given path; then reconfigurability is exploited to avoid cable slackness along the path.