Optimal Design and Experimental Validation of a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot for Movement Training of the Head–Neck Joint

Abstract

The optimal design and the experimental validation of a cable-driven parallel robot is discussed in this paper. This novel device is intended for assisting therapists in the rehabilitation of the head–neck joint. First, the motion of the head–neck joint was recorded by means of a Qualisys motion-capture system. The collected data was then analyzed in order to obtain the range of motion of the head and to identify some prescribed trajectories. A novel end-effector design was proposed to reduce the degrees of freedom needed to perform the desired head motion. The best design was found through an optimization problem where the cable tensions are minimized and the robot dexterity is maximized within its workspace. The objective of this optimization was to find the optimal actuator positions while satisfying a set of constraints. A prototype was proposed and experimental tests were conducted to validate the robot performance. In particular, a comparison between the actual trajectories and the desired ones was performed. The experimental test showed promising results.

A six degrees-of-freedom cable-driven robotic platform for head–neck movement

“…By contrast, cable-driven designs have the potential to address the issue caused by rigid kinematics as cables apply tensile forces to collectively generate force and moment on the head without imposing hard kinematic constraints 21 . Recently, there have been efforts to incorporate cables in head–neck device designs 22 , 23 . However, these existing devices are unable to fully control the 6-DoF movement and force/moment application on the head–neck, which limits their potential for clinical and scientific applications.…”

A Cable-Driven Robotic Platform to Modulate and Study Head-Neck Movements

“…On the other hand, cable-driven designs have the potential to address the issue caused by rigid kinematics because cables apply tensile forces to collectively generate moments about anatomical joints without constraining their movement 22 . Recently, there have been efforts to incorporate cables in head-neck device designs 23,24 . However, these existing devices are unable to fully control the wide-range, 6-DoF movement of the head-neck, which limits their potential for clinical and scientific applications.…”