A method of verifying force-closure condition for general cable manipulators with seven cables

This paper introduces a systematic method of verifying the force-closure condition for general 6-DOF cable-driven manipulators with seven cables. Force-closure is defined as that the inverse dynamics problem has a feasible solution for any external wrench exerted on the end-effector. For any given configuration of a 7-cable manipulator, the method can easily determine, by examining the Jacobian matrix of the manipulator, whether a solution of all-positive cable forces exists. The necessary and sufficient conditions of the proposed method are mathematically proven. The paper also addresses the application of the proposed method for determination of the force-closure workspace. As a numerical example, the shape, boundary, dimensions, and volume of the force-closure workspace of a 6-DOF, 7-cable manipulator are discussed.