Details of Research Outputs

The cable-suspended parallel manipulator replaces the rigid links of traditional parallel robot. The unilateral property of the cable complicates the dynamic analysis of such manipulator and further induces difficulty in control problem. The set-valued tension law is proposed to model the unilateral constraint of the cable, and the dynamics of cable-suspended parallel manipulator is analyzed in the framework of non-smooth dynamics. The resulting non-smooth dynamics model consists of a set of differential-algebraic equations with inequality constraints. Its solution is found by the Moreau midpoint method. An experimental setup was established to verify and validate the effectiveness and accuracy of non-smooth dynamics. And the simulation results generally agree with the experimental results, which demonstrate that the non-smooth dynamics is effective and reasonable for the dynamic analysis of the cable-suspended parallel manipulator. The results of this article deeply reveal the dynamics of the cable-suspended parallel manipulator, and may be used to design more accurate controller for its trajectory control. © 2012 IMechE.