A new cable-actuated Haptic interface design

Abstract

Cable robots or wire driven robots possess many advantages that make them well suited to be used as haptic interfaces. They present very low inertia and very low friction because of their very light mechanical structure. However, a bulky structure is needed to carry the motor units all around the handle. To avoid this problem, we previously proposed to replace one of the pulling cables with a pushing cylinder. Nevertheless, the actuation lines tend to be less regularly distributed in space, resulting in anisotropic and inhomogeneous static and dynamic performances. In this paper, we introduce a new architecture allowing better performances all over the workspace. This upgrade is validated with a precise cartography of the robot's most important haptic characteristics. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.