Cable Tension Control Of Cable-Driven Parallel Manipulators With Position-Controlling Actuators

Keep all cables in tension is crucial for the control of a cable driven parallel manipulator (CDPM). It is challenging to control the tensions in cables of a CDPM with position-controlling actuators because the controlled output positions of actuators are not directly related to cable tensions, especially when cable elasticity is considered. This paper proposes a cable tension control algorithm for fully-constrained CDPMs with position-controlling actuators. The proposed tension control algorithm is mathematically derived and verified through simulation using Matlab. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can guarantee all cables are in tension for fully-constrained CDPMs with position-controlling actuators, while not affecting the motion control of the CDPM.