Antipodal Criteria for Workspace Characterization of Spatial Cable-Driven Robots

In this paper, the implementation of the antipodal principles on the spatial cable-driven parallel robots is investigated. The spatial form of the antipodal method is presented and the criteria for examining the wrench-closure workspace of cable robots are developed. The generalization of the 3D conditions on the 6 DOF fully constrained spatial robots, with one or two cables at each platform attachment points, is proposed. Comprehensive mathematical models are developed and implemented in simulation for a variety of 5 and 6 degrees of freedom cable robots.