Workspace analysis and verification of cable-driven parallel mechanism for wind tunnel test

Abstract

Cable-driven parallel mechanism is a special kind of parallel robot in which traditional rigid links are replaced by actuated cables. This provides a new suspension method for wind tunnel test, in which an aircraft model is driven by a number of parallel cables to fulfil 6-DOF motion. The workspace of such a cable robot is limited due to the geometrical and unilateral force constraints, the investigation of which is important for applications requiring large flight space. This paper focuses on the workspace analysis and verification of a redundant constraint 6-DOF cable-driven parallel suspension system. Based on the system motion and dynamic equations, the geometrical interference (either intersection between two cables or between a cable and the aircraft) and cable tension restraint conditions are constructed and analyzed. The hyperplane vector projection strategy is used to solve the aircraft’s orientation and position workspace. Moreover, software ADAMS is used to check the workspace, and experiments are done on the prototype, which adopts a camera to monitor the actual motion space. In addition, the system construction is designed by using a built-in six-component balance to measure the aerodynamic force. The results of simulation and tests show a good consistency, which means that the restraint conditions and workspace solution strategy are valid and can be used to provide guidance for the cable-driven parallel suspension system’s application in wind tunnel tests.

Keywords

Cable-driven parallel mechanism wind tunnel test geometrical interference hyperplane workspace analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Williams

Xin

Bosscher

. Contour-crafting-Cartesian cable robot system concepts: Workspace and stiffness comparisons. In: ASME, 32nd mechanisms and robotics conference, New York, USA 2008.

Dallej

Gouttefarde

Andreff

. Towards vision-based control of cable-driven parallel robots. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems 2011. 25–30 September 2011,

San Francisco, CA, USA, IEEE

2855–2860.

ONERA, . SACSO, suspension active pour essais en soufflerie [EB/OL]. http://www.onera.fr/dcsd/sacso/index.php (accessed 5 December 2008).

Xiao

Lin

Zheng

. Model aerodynamic tests with a wire-driven parallel suspension system in low-speed wind tunnel. Chin J Aeronaut 2010; 4: 393–400.

Zheng

Lin

Liu

. On wire-driven parallel suspension systems for static and dynamic derivatives of aircraft in low-speed wind tunnels. Acta Aeronaut Astronaut Sin 2009; 30: 1549–1554.

Pham

Yeo

Yang

. Force-closure workspace analysis of cable-driven parallel mechanisms. Mech Mach Theory 2006; 41: 53–69.

Pham

Yeo

Yang

. Workspace analysis of fully restrained cable-driven manipulators. Robot Autonom Syst 2009; 57: 901–912.

Diao

. Force-closure analysis of 6-DOF cable manipulators with seven or more cables. Robotica 2009; 27: 209–215.

Bosscher

Riechel

Ebert-Uphoff

. Wrench-feasible workspace generation for cable-driven robots. IEEE Trans Robot 2006; 22: 890–902.

10.

Gouttefarde

Merlet

Daney

. Wrench-feasible workspace of parallel cable-driven mechanisms. In: 2007 IEEE international conference on robotics and automation Roma, Italy, 10–14 April 2007, pp. 1492–1497.

11.

Nguyen

Gouttefarde

. On the improvement of cable collision detection algorithms. In: Cable-driven parallel robots, Mechanisms and machine science, New York: Springer, 2015, pp. 29–40.

12.

Berti

Merlet

Carricato

. Workspace analysis of redundant cable-suspended parallel robots. In: Cable-driven parallel robots, Mechanisms and machine science, New York: Springer, 2015, pp. 41–53.

13.

Ouyang

Shang

. Efficient computation method of force-closure workspace for 6-DOF cable-driven parallel manipulators. Chin J Mech Eng 2013; 49: 3341–3341.

14.

Qiu

. Derivation of complete interference conditions for wire-driven parallel robots. Chin J Mech Eng 2011; 47: 43–51.

15.

Liu

Qiu

Sheng

. Criteria conditions and analytic expression of workspace of wire-driven parallel manipulators. Chin J Mech Eng 2011; 47: 28–35.

16.

Liu

Qiu

Sheng

. Proofs of existence conditions for workspaces of wire-driven parallel robots and a uniform solution strategy for the workspaces. Chin J Mech Eng 2010; 46: 27–34.

17.

Murray

Sastry

. A mathematical introduction to robotic manipulation, Beijing: Chinese Machine Press, 1998.