Modified Pre-stretching Assembly Method for Cable-Driven Systems

Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Xuyang Ren¹  Jinhua Li¹  Jingchao Shen¹  Guokai Zhang¹  Shuxin Wang¹  Kang Kong¹ 

[1] 0000 0004 1761 2484, grid.33763.32, Key Laboratory of Mechanism Theory and Equipment Design of Ministry of Education, Tianjin University, 300354, Tianjin, China;0000 0004 1761 2484, grid.33763.32, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, 300350, Tianjin, China;

关键词: Performance;    Cable-driven system;    Pre-stretching;    Assembly;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s10033-019-0362-6

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

Soft cable-driven systems have been employed in many assembled mechanisms, such as industrial robots, parallel kinematic mechanism machines, medical devices, and humaniform hands. A pre-stretching process is necessary to guarantee the quality of cable-driven systems during the assembly process. However, the stress relaxation of cables becomes a critical concern during long-term operation. This study investigates the effects of non-uniform deformation and long-term stress relaxation of the driven cables owing to moving parts in the system. A simple closed-loop cable-driven system is built and an alternating load is applied to it to replicate the operation of transmission cables. Under different experimental conditions, the cable tension is recorded and the boundary data are selected to be curve-fitted. Based on the fitted results, a formula is presented to estimate the stress relaxation of cables to evaluate the assembly performance. Further experimental results show that the stress relaxation is mainly caused by cable creep and the assembly procedure. To remove the influence of the assembly procedure, a modified pre-stretching assembly method based on the stress relaxation theory is proposed and verification experiments are performed. Finally, the assembly performance is optimized using a cable-driven surgical robot as an example. This paper proposes a dual stretching method instead of the pre-stretching method to assemble the cable-driven system to improve its performance and prolong its service life.

【 授权许可】

CC BY