Low-Cost Cable-Driven Robot Arm with Low-Inertia Movement and Long-Term Cable Durability
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Related Works
1.2. Research Concept
- Robot arm: We design a low-cost cable-driven robotic arm with six degrees of freedom (DOF) at the same scale as the UR5 robotic arm. Our proposed design targets to manipulate a 5 kg payload. The arm’s body is lightweight, allowing for operation with low movement inertia. Unlike many previous designs where all six DOF are cable-actuated, our approach employs a hybrid design. Only the three DOF in the wrist joints are driven by a cable system. To ensure good pose repeatability, the shoulder and elbow joints, which influence longer moment arms, were designed with a direct-drive structure.
- The wrist: The design relocates the three motors driving the three DOF of the wrist closer to the shoulder, with the actuation remotely transmitted by three pairs of cables. As a result, the wrist weighs only 0.8 kg, allowing for safer human interactions and reducing the torque requirements for the elbow and shoulder motors. This reduction in torque requirements also leads to a decrease in the overall cost and weight of the robotic arm.
- Decoupling system: The design ensures that the length of each cable remains constant when the forearm and wrist rotate around their hinge joints. Compared with [40], our design achieves less vibration as the cables move due to no compensating spring in our decoupling mechanism. Additionally, the cable is wound around the tightening pulley approximately 10 times before reaching the termination point, which enhances the creep performance of the cable and improves the durability of the cable tension.
- This mechanism enables tighter cable adjustments with greater durability and allows users to re-tension cables after a period of use. This feature enhances reliability and maintains the operational accuracy of the robotic arm. It represents a novel improvement compared with [40,41,43,44], where cable ends were secured with bolts.
2. Design of Cable-Driven Robot Arm
2.1. Main Frame
2.2. Wrist
2.3. Cable Tightening Mechanism
2.4. Decoupling Mechanism
3. Kinetics of the Robot Arm
4. Results
4.1. Fabrication
4.2. Electrical Design
4.3. Testing Configuration of the Robot Arm
4.3.1. Loading Test
4.3.2. Cable Durability Test
4.3.3. Repeatability
5. Conclusions
6. Patents
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Link | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Base | 0 | 0 | ||
Upper arm | 0 | |||
Forearm | 0 | 0 | ||
Wrist1 | 0 | 0 | ||
Wrist2 | 0 | 0 | ||
Wrist3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
Testing position | payload | 1 kg | 2 kg | 3 kg | 4 kg | 5 kg |
(rpm) | 7.5 | 33.3 | 55 | 66.7 | 83.3 |
S. No | LH-Wrist | RH-Wrist | Both Wrist | Robot Arm |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
2 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
3 | 0.37 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
4 | 0.38 | 0.38 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
5 | 0.37 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.34 |
6 | 0.38 | 0.37 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
7 | 0.38 | 0.38 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
8 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
9 | 0.36 | 0.38 | 0.37 | 0.34 |
10 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
11 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.36 |
12 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
13 | 0.36 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
14 | 0.38 | 0.38 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
15 | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.37 | 0.35 |
Std dev | 0.007 | 0.006 | 0.000 | 0.005 |
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Nguyen, V.P.; Chow, W.T.; Dhyan, S.B.; Zhang, B.; Han, B.S.; Wong, H.Y.A. Low-Cost Cable-Driven Robot Arm with Low-Inertia Movement and Long-Term Cable Durability. Robotics 2024, 13, 128. https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics13090128
Nguyen VP, Chow WT, Dhyan SB, Zhang B, Han BS, Wong HYA. Low-Cost Cable-Driven Robot Arm with Low-Inertia Movement and Long-Term Cable Durability. Robotics. 2024; 13(9):128. https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics13090128
Chicago/Turabian StyleNguyen, Van Pho, Wai Tuck Chow, Sunil Bohra Dhyan, Bohan Zhang, Boon Siew Han, and Hong Yee Alvin Wong. 2024. "Low-Cost Cable-Driven Robot Arm with Low-Inertia Movement and Long-Term Cable Durability" Robotics 13, no. 9: 128. https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics13090128