Dynamics analysis of a cable-driven parallel manipulator for hardware-in-the-loop dynamic simulation

This paper describes a preliminary study of the dynamics of a 6-DOF cable-driven parallel manipulator for a potential application in a ground-based hardware-in-the-loop simulator of microgravity dynamics and contact-dynamics of spacecraft or robotic systems. Two basic dynamics problems are studied. One is the inverse dynamics problem and the other is the rigidity and vibration problem. The study results support the feasibility of using such a cable-driven manipulator for hardware-in-the-loop simulation of contact dynamics