A Review of Cable-Driven Parallel Robots: Typical Configurations, Analysis Techniques, and Control Methods

Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) have applications in large workspaces and at high operating speeds, which necessitates considering the mass and elasticity of cables for accurate analyses of kinematics, dynamics, workspace, trajectory planning, and control. In this article, first, the typical CDPR configurations along with their application areas are summarized. Then, various approaches, such as optimizing cable and motor configurations or integrating additional elements to the structure of CDPRs that can be used for workspace geometry optimization, are discussed. Afterward, different models for the cables with mass and elasticity, such as Irvine’s sagging or spring dampers studied in the literature for integrating into the kinematics and dynamics equations, are reported. Later, along with reviewing different approaches for trajectory planning of planar and spatial CDPRs, advances in configuration optimization for collision-free trajectory planning are addressed. Finally, kinematic and dynamic control algorithms to handle the effect of mass and elasticity of the cables and robust and adaptive control algorithms to tackle structured and unstructured uncertainties, such as in the mass and moment of the moving platform (MP) and external disturbances, are reported.