Abstract
Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) have the characteristic of easy deployment, which endows CDPRs with flexible workspace, freely configurable degrees of freedom (DOF), and various configurations, greatly expanding their range of applications. Modular design provides excellent convenience and feasibility for deployment, which is a crucial issue of CDPR design. A highly integrated cable-driving module is designed in this paper, which includes the winding bobbin, servo motor, force sensor, external encoder, electromagnetic brake, as well as other devices. Experiments show that the maximum cable length control error is less than 0.16%, and the maximum cable tension control error is less than 8% in the back-and-forward rotation test. Furthermore, using the proposed module, a CDPR with eight cables and 6 DOFs is constructed rapidly, whose dimension is 850×850×650 mm3. Results show that the robot's trajectory errors are all less than 4.5 mm, and the Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) is 2.1 mm. Besides, the compliance control experiments show that the robot's tracking error in impedance control mode is less than 2 mm, and the RMSE is 0.95 mm. Moreover, the dragging force in teaching mode is less than 2.5 N, which demonstrates good follow-up performance. The proposed compact cable-driving module with high precision could be helpful for the design and rapid deployment of modular CDPRs.