Time-optimal trajectory planning in cable-based manipulators

In this paper, the trajectory planning of high-speed cable-based parallel manipulators is studied for a given geometrical path. The time-optimal trajectory-planning technique is adapted for these manipulators in which cable forces must be maintained tensile. This condition is represented as a constraint on the acceleration of the end-effector along the path. The results of this technique are evaluated experimentally on DeltaBot, a cable-based manipulator developed at the University of Waterloo. The performance of the time-optimal technique is examined both for the moving time of the manipulator and the computational time of the trajectory generation.