Cable-driven parallel robots are a new kind of lightweight manipulators with excellent scalability in terms of size, payload, and dynamics capacities. For the first time, a comprehensive compendium is presented of the field of cable-driven parallel robots. A thorough theory of cable robots is setup leading the reader from first principles to the latest results in research. The main topics covered in the book are classification, terminology, and fields of application for cable-driven parallel robots. The geometric foundation of the standard cable model is introduced followed by statics, force distribution, and stiffness. Inverse and forward kinematics are addressed by elaborating efficient algorithms. Furthermore, the workspace is introduced and different algorithms are detailed. The book contains the dynamic equations as well as simulation models with applicable parameters. Advanced cable models are described taking into account pulleys, elastic cables, and sagging cables. For practitioner, a descriptive design method is stated including methodology, parameter synthesis, construction design, component selection, and calibration. Rich examples are presented by means of simulation results from sample robots as well as experimental validation on reference demonstrators. The book contains a representative overview of reference demonstrator system. Tables with physical parameters for geometry, cable properties, and robot parameterizations support case studies and are valuable references for building custom cable robots. For scientist, the book provides the starting point to address new scientific challenges as open problems are named and a commented review of the literature on cable robot with more than 500 references are given.

Gathering presentations to the First International Conference on Cable-Driven Parallel Robots, this book covers classification and definition, kinematics, workspace analysis, cable modeling, hardware/prototype development, control and calibration and more.

The ?rst International Meeting of Advances in Robot Kinematics, ARK, occurred in September 1988, by invitation to Ljubljana, Slovenia, of a group of 20 int- nationally recognized researchers, representing six different countries from three continents. There were 22 lectures and approximately 150 attendees. This success of bringing together excellent research and the international community, led to the formation of a Scienti?c Committee and the decision to repeat the event biannually. The meeting was made open to all individuals with a critical peer review process of submitted papers. The meetings have since been continuously supported by the Jozef ? Stefan Institute and since 1992 have come under patronage of the Inter- tionalFederationforthePromotionofMechanismandMachineScience(IFToMM). Springer published the ?rst book of the series in 1991 and since 1994 Kluwer and Springer have published a book of the presented papers every two years. The papers in this book present the latest topics and methods in the kinem- ics, control and design of robotic manipulators. They consider the full range of - botic systems, including serial, parallel and cable driven manipulators, both planar and spatial. The systems range from being less than fully mobile to kinematically redundant to overconstrained. The meeting included recent advances in emerging areas such as the design and control of humanoids and humanoid subsystems, the analysis, modeling and simulation of human body motion, the mobility analysis of protein molecules and the development of systems which integrate man and - chine.

Parallel structures are more effective than serial ones for industrial automation applications that require high precision and stiffness, or a high load capacity relative to robot weight. Although many industrial applications have adopted parallel structures for their design, few textbooks introduce the analysis of such robots in terms of dynamics

Parallel robots are closed-loop mechanisms presenting very good performances in terms of accuracy, rigidity and ability to manipulate large loads. Parallel robots have been used in a large number of applications ranging from astronomy to flight simulators and are becoming increasingly popular in the field of machine-tool industry. This book presents a complete synthesis of the latest results on the possible mechanical architectures, analysis and synthesis of this type of mechanism. It is intended to be used by students (with over 100 exercises and numerous Internet addresses), researchers (with over 500 references and anonymous ftp access to the code of some algorithms presented in this book) and engineers (for which practical results and applications are presented).

It is my ambition in writing this book to bring tribology to the study of control of machines with friction. Tribology, from the greek for study of rubbing, is the discipline that concerns itself with friction, wear and lubrication. Tribology spans a great range of disciplines, from surface physics to lubrication chemistry and engineering, and comprises investigators in diverse specialities. The English language tribology literature now grows at a rate of some 700 articles per year. But for all of this activity, in the three years that I have been concerned with the control of machines with friction, I have but once met a fellow controls engineer who was aware that the field existed, this including many who were concerned with friction. In this vein I must confess that, before undertaking these investigations, I too was unaware that an active discipline of friction existed. The experience stands out as a mark of the specialization of our time. Within tribology, experimental and theoretical understanding of friction in lubricated machines is well developed. The controls engineer's interest is in dynamics, which is not the central interest of the tribologist. The tribologist is more often concerned with wear, with respect to which there has been enormous progress - witness the many mechanisms which we buy today that are lubricated once only, and that at the factory. Though a secondary interest, frictional dynamics are note forgotten by tribology.

Computational kinematics is an enthralling area of science with a rich spectrum of problems at the junction of mechanics, robotics, computer science, mathematics, and computer graphics. The present book collects up-to-date methods as presented during the Fifth International Workshop on Computational Kinematics (CK2009) held at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. The covered topics include design and optimization of cable-driven robots, analysis of parallel manipulators, motion planning, numerical methods for mechanism calibration and optimization, geometric approaches to mechanism analysis and design, synthesis of mechanisms, kinematical issues in biomechanics, balancing and construction of novel mechanical devices, detection and treatment of singularities, as well as computational methods for gear design. The results should be of interest for practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students from the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and computer graphics.