Design and workspace analysis of a 6-6 cable-suspended parallel robot

In this paper, we study the design and workspace of a 6-6 cable-suspended parallel robot. The workspace volume is characterized as the set of points where the centroid of the moving platform can reach with tensions in all suspension cables at a constant orientation. This paper attempts to tackle some aspects of optimal design of a 6DOF cable robot by addressing the variations of the workspace volume and the accuracy of the robot using different geometric configurations, different sizes and orientations of the moving platform. The global condition index is used as a performance index of a robot with respect to the force and velocity transmission over the whole workspace. The results are used for design analysis of the cable-robot for a specific motion of the moving platform. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.