Influence of parameters uncertainties on the positioning of cable-driven parallel robots

Positioning accuracy of cable-driven parallel robots is influenced by many factors such as geometry, actuator sensor accuracy and disturbances in the applied wrench. Another uncertainty source is the elasticity of the cables. While the influence of many factors may be decreased by calibration and/or sensor fusion, elasticity parameters are difficult to estimate and their effect on the positioning errors has yet to be determined. In this paper we consider a generic cable model that includes cable elasticity and the effect of cable weight and we propose a generic algorithm that allows one to safely calculate the minimum and maximum of the positioning error at a given pose when the elasticity parameters are constrained to lie within some given bounds. The algorithm is designed for being able to manage the effect of different uncertainties sources and we compare the influence of elasticity versus the effect of uncertainties in the cable lengths.