Comparative study of cable parallel manipulators with and without hybrid-driven planar five-bar mechanism

Cable parallel manipulators (CPMs) relay on cables instead of rigid links to support and manipulate the end-effector. The CPMs are required not only for operations with lower inertia and high payload, but also for output with greater flexibility. The paper is devoted to present and analyze a cable parallel manipulator with and without hybrid-driven planar five-bar mechanism (HDPM). The cable parallel manipulator with the HDPM combines positive features of both the cable parallel manipulator and the HDPM. Comparative study of kinematics and dynamics of the CPMs with and without HDPM are studied. Drive torques and drive powers are given to compare the load carrying capacity of the two manipulators, and workspace, stiffness performance, singularity analysis are also carried out. Simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the CPMs with and without HDPM and their mechanics performance.