Experimental characterization of Bowden cable friction

Author

Dongyang Chen ; Youngmok Yun ; Deshpande, Ashish D.

Author_Institution

Mech. Eng., Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

May 31 2014-June 7 2014

Firstpage

5927

Lastpage

5933

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic method for experimental characterization of Bowden cable friction. A novel tension measurement method using a motion capture system and a spring is introduced. With the tension measurement method, the effects of nine variables on friction are investigated. Experimental results show that i) a combination of 7×19 FEP-coated stainless steel cable and double-sheaths has the highest force transmission efficiency; ii) smaller coefficient of friction material, smaller cable moving speed, shorter cable length, longer clamp distance, stiffer cable/sheath all help to increase the force transmission efficiency; and iii) the static friction pretension ratio only decreases as the coefficient of friction of cable/sheath decreases or as cable/sheath stiffness increases. We have generated guidelines for the Bowden cable performance which may help robotics researchers in choosing materials for the Bowden cables and designing control systems for actuation.

Keywords

cables (mechanical); elastic constants; friction; springs (mechanical); stainless steel; Bowden cable friction; cable length; cable moving speed; cable-sheath stiffness; clamp distance; coated stainless steel cable; double-sheaths; force transmission efficiency; motion capture system; spring; static friction pretension ratio; tension measurement; Cable shielding; Force; Force measurement; Friction; Materials; Robots; Springs;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Hong Kong

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICRA.2014.6907732

Filename

6907732