Cable sag can have significant effects on the cable length computation in a cable-suspended robot and this is more pronounced in large-scale outdoor systems. This requires modeling the cable as a catenary instead of an approximated straight-line model. Furthermore, when there is actuation redundancy involved, the modeling and simulation of the system becomes much more complex, requiring optimizing routines to solve the problem.
A cable-sag-compensated (catenary) model was implemented in simulation for an example large outdoor cable-suspended robot system to solve the coupled kinematics and statics problems. This involved optimization of cable tensions and finding the errors involved in the cable length. A comparative analysis between the straight-line and cable sag model is presented, the main contribution of this paper. Based on the qualitative and quantitative results obtained, recommendations were made on the choice of model and solution methodologies.
