On the connections between cable-driven robots, parallel manipulators and grasping

Abstract

Although cable-driven robots and parallel manipulators have very similar architecture, the presence of the unidirectional constraints in cable-driven robots makes it impossible to apply many of the concepts and methods used for parallel manipulators. Instead many tools from grasping are more suitable, since fingers also provide unidirectional constraints. This article reviews some of the connections, provides some basic definitions that we hope leads to standardized terminology for cable-driven robots, and finally transfers the antipodal grasping theorem to planar cable-driven robots.