An Overview of Cable-Driven Parallel Robots: Workspace, Tension Distribution, and Cable Sagging

The researching, designing, calculating, and controlling cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) are being promoted in recent years. The researches focus on optimizing the design of CDPRs configuration, computing workspace, calculating cable tension distribution, designing the mechanical structure, and developing controller. However, due to the complexity of the structure and unidirectional characteristic of cable, many computational methods have been applied to solve the above problems. To facilitate the performance of theoretical studies on important issues in the design and control of the CDPRs, a summary of computational methods is needed for important issues related to the functionality and accuracy of CDPRs such as defining the workspace, distributing the cable tensions, and calculating the sagging of the cable. This paper summarizes published studies on CDPRs and focuses on classifying and analyzing methods used to calculate important issues in the process of calculating and designing CDPRs. The efficiency of these calculation methods is also analyzed and evaluated based on the mathematical theories of kinematics and dynamics of CDPRs. The content of this study is an effective reference for studies on important problems in the process of designing and implementing CDPRs, helping researchers shorten the time to review related topics.