Actuated In-Operation-Reconfiguration of a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot with a Gradient Descent Approximation Technique

Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) can be used where a large workspace is required or where high payloads need to be handled. However, certain applications may avoid CDPRs due to drawbacks such as potential cable collisions. To improve the usability of CDPRs, the fixed frame anchors can be mounted on reconfiguration axes. This results in more complex kinematics that are challenging to control. This paper introduces a gradient descent approximation technique for reconfigurable CDPRs (RCDPRs) to identify, with low computational effort, appropriate configurations for a given platform pose to achieve a larger workspace. A workspace study shows a wrench-feasible workspace enlargement up to 28% when using this reconfiguration technique on an RCDPR compared to a common CDPR.