Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26

Development of a Large
Parallel-Cable Manipulator
for the Feed-Supporting
System of a Next-Generation
Large Radio Telescope

Y. X. Su

and B. Y. Duan
School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering
Xidian University
Xian 710071, China
e-mail: yxsu@mail.xidian.edu.cn
R. D. Nan and B. Peng
Beijing Astronomical Observatory
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100012, China
Received 6 June 2000; accepted 13 June 2001
A large parallel-cable manipulator for the feed-supporting system of a next-generation
large radio telescope is presented in this paper. The approximate kinematics model of
the system is developed to improve real-time controllability, and the rationality of this
approximation is validated by a kinematics accuracy analysis. In order to guarantee the
effectiveness of control, the singularity of the large parallel-cable manipulator is analyzed
(including kinematics and force singularities). The control strategy of the parallel-cable
feed-supporting system is also proposed. 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
1. INTRODUCTION
Astronomical observatories, astronomers, and an-
tenna experts are unanimous regarding the need to
develop a telescope with two orders of magnitude

To whom all correspondence should be addressed.

Contract grant sponsor: National Natural Science Foundation of
China.
Contract grant sponsor: Key Project, Innovation Program, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing Astronomical Observation.
Contract grant number: 59675040.
Contract grant number: 50075065.
increase in sensitivity over existing facilities at me-
ter to centimeter wavelengths. To achieve this goal
will require a new radio telescope, which would en-
able the direct observation of the formation and evo-
lution of galaxies from gases in the universe.
1
To do
this, a collecting area of 10
6
m
2
is required and the
result is thus dubbed the next-generation large radio
telescope (LT).
1, 2
Making full use of the unique karst formation
in Puding and Pingtang counties in the Guizhou
Province of China, a large spherical LT array with
about 30 large spherical reector antennas (each an-
Journal of Robotic Systems 18(11), 633643 (2001)
2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
634 Journal of Robotic Systems2001
tenna with a diameter of up to 300500 meters) was
proposed in 1995, in China.
3
Currently, the largest spherical radio telescope is
the Arecibo telescope with a diameter of 305 meters,
which was initially constructed in 1963 and located in
Puerto Rico, USA. In 1974, a new surface for the re-
ector of this radio telescope was installed.
4
Recently,
a major update was accomplished by adding a dou-
ble subreector, but the basic scanning method of the
feed is still the same as that of the 1970s. Due to tech-
nological limitations at that time, tracking to a radio
source was implemented via completely mechanical
means. The weight of the feed and backup structure
suspended by several long cables is more than 800
tons.
5
Such a design is probably unacceptably expen-
sive for the LT. In order to overcome the shortcomings
of the original Arecibo telescope design. Duan
6
pro-
posed a novel design project that adopted the syn-
thetic design with mechatronics and optic technolo-
gies for the next-generation LT. In this design project,
the 800-ton Arecibo-like stationary feed system is
discarded, and replaced by a feed-supporting sys-
tem with a 20-ton movable cabin structure, which is
dragged by six large cables through six big power
winches.
Because of the large span of the cables, it is dif-
cult to guarantee the high accuracy requirement of
trajectory tracking (a state error of less than 4 mm).
A ne tuning platform based on a prototype of a
Stewart platform
8
was designed to connect with the
cabin structure, as shown in Figure 1, and a favorable
kinematics accuracy was obtained.
7
In fact, if viewed from the parallel manipulator,
the novel design project of Duan
6
is a parallel-cable
manipulator. In this paper, we exploit the feasibility
Figure 1. Parallel-cable feed-supporting system with
Stewart ne-tuning platform for the LT.
of coarse control of the cabin structure with large span
cables. The article is organizedas follows: In Section 2,
an approximate kinematics model is developed. Sec-
tion3 contributes to the singularity analysis, whichin-
cludes kinematics and force singularities. The control
strategy of the parallel-cable manipulator is presented
in Section 4. Section 5 demonstrates the rationality of
the kinematics approximation by unication through
a kinematics accuracy analysis.
2. APPROXIMATE KINEMATICS MODEL
The parallel-cable feed-supporting system consists of
a cabin structure and six large-span cables, connected
to the cabin structure with six spherical joints, as
shown in Figure 1. In order to realize coarse tracking
control, the relationship between the pose of the cabin
structure and each of the six cable lengths must rst
be known. Therefore, two distinct types of orthogonal
reference frames are used in the development of the
kinematics model. The inertial reference frame O-XYZ
is dened with its origin located at the imaginary base
that is constituted by the upper attachment points of
six pillars. The movable frame p-xyz is attached to the
movable cabinstructure, andits originis locatedinthe
center of the lower circle of the structure, as shown in
Figure 1.
One large-span cable is shown in Figure 2. Con-
sidering the equilibrium about the cable and cabin
structure yields
6
A H = B (1)
where A=[A
1
A
2
A
3
A
4
A
5
A
6
]
T
, B=[b
1
b
2
b
3
b
4
b
5
b
6
]
T
, and H=[H
a
H
b
H
c
H
d
H
e
H
f
]
T
, and in
Figure 2. Large-span cable.
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
Su et al.: Development of a Large Parallel-Cable Manipulator 635
which the members of matrices A and B are listed
as follows:
A
1
= [h
a
/l
a
h
b
/l
b
h
c
/l
c
h
d
/l
d
h
e
/l
e
h
f
/l
f
]
A
2
= [cos
a
cos
b
cos
c
cos
d
cos
e
cos
f
]
A
3
= [sin
a
sin
b
sin
c
sin
d
sin
e
sin
f
]
A
4
= [(Z
a1
sin
a
+ h
a
Y
a1
/l
a
)
(Z
b1
sin
b
+ h
b
Y
b1
/l
b
)
(Z
c1
sin
c
+ h
c
Y
c1
/l
c
)
(Z
o1
sin
d
+ h
d
Y
o1
/l
d
)
(Z
o1
sin
e
+ h
e
Y
o1
/l
e
)
(Z
o1
sin
f
+ h
f
Y
o1
/l
f
)]
A
5
= [(Z
a1
cos
a
h
a
X
a1
/l
a
)
(Z
b1
cos
b
h
b
X
b1
/l
b
) (2)
(Z
c1
cos
c
h
c
X
c1
/l
c
)
(Z
o1
cos
d
h
d
X
o1
/l
d
)
(Z
o1
cos
e
h
e
Y
o1
/l
e
)
(Z
o1
cos
f
h
f
Y
o1
/l
f
)]
A
6
= [(Y
a1
cos
a
+ X
a1
sin
a
)
(Y
b1
cos
b
+ X
b1
sin
b
)
(Y
c1
cos
c
+ X
c1
sin
c
)
(Y
o1
cos
d
+ X
o1
sin
d
)
(Y
o1
cos
e
+ X
o1
sin
e
)
(Y
o1
cos
f
+ Y
o1
sin
f
)]
b
1
= w +
S
a
l
a
+
S
b
l
b
+
S
c
l
c
+
S
d
l
d
+
S
e
l
e
+
S
f
l
f
b
2
= 0
b
3
= 0
b
4
= w Y
p0
+
S
a
Y
a1
l
a
+
S
b
Y
b1
l
b
+
S
c
Y
c1
l
c
+
S
d
Y
o1
l
d
+
S
e
Y
o1
l
e
+
S
f
Y
o1
l
f
b
5
= w X
p0

S
a
X
a1
l
a

S
b
X
b1
l
b

S
c
X
c1
l
c

S
d
X
o1
l
d

S
e
X
o1
l
e

S
f
X
o1
l
f
b
6
= 0
(3)
S
a
=

l
a
0
q

1 +(y

)
2
dx, S
b
=

l
b
0
q

1 +(y

)
2
dx
S
c
=

l
c
0
q

1 +(y

)
2
dx, S
d
=

l
d
0
q

1 +(y

)
2
dx
S
e
=

l
e
0
q

1 +(y

)
2
dx, S
f
=

l
f
0
q

1 +(y

)
2
dx
(4)
In the preceding formulas, H
a
, H
b
, H
c
, H
d
, H
e
, H
f
are
the horizontal tension forces of the six cables, at the
end of the cabin structure, respectively; h
a
, h
b
, h
c
, h
d
,
h
e
, h
f
and l
a
, l
b
, l
c
, l
d
, l
e
, l
f
stand for the vertical and
horizontal deformation separately (Figure 2);
a
,
b
,

c
,
d
,
e
,
f
are the positioning angles of six pulleys;
wis the total weight of the cabin structure andStewart
ne-tuning platform, including the feed source; and
(X
a
, Y
a
, Z
a
) are the coordinates of pulley A. (X
01
, Y
01
)
are the coordinates of the center of the cabin structure
q is the distributedloadtowhichthe cable is subjected;
alloy steel is chosen, and the distributed load is q =
0.0628 Kg/cm.
Any of the large-span cables is a hyperbolic func-
tion that can be described as
9, 6
y = kch

x
k
+ c
2

+ c
1
(5)
where k = H/q, and c
1
and c
2
are two constants to be
determined by the boundary conditions. Substituting
(0, 0) and (l, h), it follows that

c
1
= kch(c
2
)
c
1
= kch

l
k
+ c
2

+ h
(6)
So far, the horizontal force of the six cables would
not be obtaineddirectly, because the Eq. (6) is a nonlin-
ear system. It must be solved by an iteration method.
That is, considering a certain pose of the cabin struc-
ture, a set of initial values of the horizontal forces
is predetermined, and substituting them into Eq. (6)
gives

1 +(y

)
2
dx; then, substituting the obtained
values into Eq. (1) leads to new values of the horizon-
tal forces. This process continues until convergence is
reached.
6
Because cables are used, it is noted in the iteration
process that the horizontal forces acting on the six ca-
bles must be tension, to avoidslack. Once the horizon-
tal forces acting on the six cables are determined, then
the lengths of the cables considering deection can be
calculated by the following formula,
S
i
=

l
i
0

1 +(y

i
)
2
dx, (i = a, b, c, d, e, f ) (7)
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
636 Journal of Robotic Systems2001
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of parallel-cable feed-
supporting system.
The parallel-cable feed-supporting system is
shown in Figure 3. Its parameters are listed as follows:
a =25000 cm, b =300 cm, h
0
=15000 cm, =20

, and
=120

, where a andb represent the radii of the imag-

inary base (which consists of the upper points of six
pillars and movable cabin structure), respectively; h
0
represents the distance between the imaginary base
and the movable cabin structure when they are paral-
lel in the horizontal direction; stands for the splay
angle betweenthe adjacent joints; and represents the
angle between the centers of the two pairs of joints, as
shown in Figure 3.
The load acting on the cabin structure is w=
20 tons. The given tracking velocity of coarse control
is described in the following form,

P = [V ]
T
= [1, 1, 0.5, 0.00075, 0.00075, 0.00075]
T
(8)
where V (cm/s) and (rad/s) are respectively, the
linear and angular velocity of the cabin structure.
Under this required velocity, the lengths of ca-
bles are calculated through the preceding procedure.
Fortunately, in the case mentioned previously, the
numerical simulations have demonstrated that the
horizontal forces are always positive, and the large-
span cable is nearly a straight link in the entire six-
dimensional tracking workspace.
10
For example, at
timet =200 min, theappearanceof thesixcables along
Figure 4. Appearance of the six cables during trajectory
tracking.
the given velocity trajectory is shown in Figure 4.
Therefore, it is reasonable to use straight links to ap-
proximate the cables to simplify the kinematics prob-
lem, avoiding the complicated iteration process to im-
prove real-time controllability.
If the preceding approximation is used, and then
the homogeneous coordinate transformation foundin
any references about the parallel manipulator,
7, 8
the
approximate kinematics model of the parallel-cable
feed-supporting system to realize coarse tracking can
be easily developed by the following procedure.
Referring to the previously developed reference
system, and using the coordinate transformation, the
vectors of the approximate legs are described as
l
i
= p + b
i
a
i
(i = a, b, c, d, e, f ) (9)
where p is the position vector from the xed origin O
to the movable origin p; and b
i
are the joints B
i
on the
movable cabin structure relative to the xed frame,
which can be expressed as
b
i
= R b

i
(10)
where b

i
is a vector from p to point B
i
with respect to
the movable coordinate systemp-xyz, Ris a rotational
matrix as follows,
R =

cos cos sin cos sin

sin cos + cos sin sin cos cos sin sin sin cos sin
sin sin cos sin cos cos sin + sin sin cos cos cos

(11)
and , , and are rotation angles about the Z-, Y-,
and X-axes, respectively.
Therefore, the approximate lengths of the six ca-
bles can be easily calculated by the magnitude of
the leg vectors l
i
, as described by the following
expression,
S
li
= |l
i
| (i = a, b, c, d, e, f ) (12)
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
Su et al.: Development of a Large Parallel-Cable Manipulator 637
Using these two methods to calculate the lengths
of the six cables in the entire six-dimensional track-
ing workspace, the maximum difference between the
approximate and the exact required lengths is
S
li
= 10 cm (i = a, b, c, d, e, f ) (13)
3. SINGULARITY ANALYSIS
The singularity analysis of the parallel manipulator
will play an important role in research and applica-
tion, as this manipulator in general is used in situa-
tions havinghighaccuracyrequirements.
7, 8, 11
Because
the large-span cables are chosen as the actuators of the
parallel manipulator for the feed-supporting system,
in addition to kinematics singularity (similar to that of
a parallel-link manipulator), force singularity may oc-
cur when the cable is required to apply a compressive
force.
3.1. Kinematics Singularity Analysis
With the cables approximated by straight links, the
kinematics singularity analysis of the parallel-cable
feed-supporting systemcan be carriedout by the local
structurization method (LSM).
12, 13
Alternative Jacobian Matrix Using LSM.
13
The Jacobian
matrix of the parallel manipulator describes the re-
lationship between the velocity of the six legs in joint
space and the velocity of the movable platformin task
space,
14, 15
and is shown as follows,

l = J

P (14)
where J is the 6 6 Jacobian matrix,

l is the velocity
of the legs in joint space, and

P is the velocity of the
movable platform.
The position kinematics of parallel manipulators
can be solved with extra sensors. These sensors can
drastically reduce the complexity of kinematics equa-
tions, and the velocity equation is simplied with ad-
ditional sensors (as intheforward-positionkinematics
case) by using LSM.
12
The simplied velocity equa-
tion can be directly used in deriving the singularity
equation.
13
For the parallel-cable feed-supporting system,
two extra angular displacement sensors are located
at one of the base joints A
1
, as shown in Figure 5. With
these two sensors, the leg vector l
1
can be fully de-
Figure 5. Schematic illustration of the vector for LSM.
ned. The divided G/P mechanisms are determined
by the triangle B
1
A
i
B
i
(i = 2, 3, . . . , 6), as shown
in Figure 5 by the dashed lines. (A G/P mechanism
is one that is composed of a globular and a prismatic
joint.)
The points B
1
and A
i
are known, and so the
lengths B
1
A
i
, A
i
B
i
, and B
1
B
i
can be determined
uniquely. Therefore, inthe case of givenlengths for the
legs, the forward kinematics can be solved by the fol-
lowing equation, considering the geometry constraint
of the mechanism,
m
i
b
1i
=
1
2

m
2
i
+ b
2
1i
l
2
i

(15)
In order to make full use of the determined leg
vector l
1
with two extra sensors, a leg coordinate sys-
tem o
1
-x
1
y
1
z
1
is dened for the leg l
1
. The z
1
-axis is
in the direction of l
1
, the x
1
-axis is in the plane of
OA
1
B
1
and in the outward direction from O, and the
y
1
-axis completes the right-hand coordinate system.
The relationship between the leg-coordinate frame
and the base-coordinate systemcan be represented by
the roll-pitch-yawrotation matrix R
1
= [n
1
s
1
r
1
].
1
,

1
, and
1
are rotationangles of matrix R
1
about the Z-,
Y-, and X-axes, respectively. So, the position and the
velocity relation of the leg vector l
1
can be described
as
l
1
= l
1
r
1

l
1
=

l
1
r
1
+ l
1
r
1
(16)
The leg-coordinate system always has the same
rotation angle about the Z-axis; that is, angle
1
de-
pends only on the geometry, and is determined by the
following formula,

1
= tan
1
(A
1y
/A
1x
) (17)
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
638 Journal of Robotic Systems2001
and r
1
can be expressed as,
13
r
1
= [c
1
n
1
s
1
]

= G

(18)
where

= [

1
]
T
, and G = [c
1
n
1
s
1
] .
Let the vector directed from B
1
to A
i
be m
i
, and
that from B
1
to B
i
be b
1i
as shown in Figure 5. The
vector m
i
can be represented as
m
i
= b
1i
l
i
= a
1i
l
1
(i = a, b, c, d, e, f ) (19)
The vector a
1i
is a constant from A
1
to A
i
. Differ-
entiating Eq. (19), it can be found that
m
i
=

b
1i


l
i
=

l
1
(20)
andbydifferentiatingEq. (15), analternative kinemat-
ics relation can be obtained,
m
i
b
1i
+ m
i


b
1i
= m
i
m
i
+ b
1i


b
1i
l
i


l
i
(21)
Since rigid body motion occurs along b
1i
, the sec-
ondtermonthe right-hand-side of Eq. (21) is b
1i

b
1i
=
0. Using Eqs. (19) and (20), (21) can be rewritten as
l
i


l
i
= (m
i
b
1i
) m
i
m
i


b
1i
= l
i


l
1
+ l
i


b
1i
(i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) (22)
Substituting Eqs. (16) and (18) into (22), we have
l
i


l
i
= l
i


l
1
+ l
i


b
1i
=

l
1
l
i
r
i
+ l
1
l
i
(G

1
)
+(b
1i
l
i
) (23)
So, for the rst leg, the following kinematics rela-
tion holds,

l
1
= p +

b
1
(24)
With Eqs. (24) and (16), the following formula can
be obtained,
l
1
G

1
= p +

b
1
r
1


l
1
(25)
So far, the vector

1
can be expressed as

1
=
1
l
1
(G
T
G)
1
G
T
( p +

b
1
r
1


l
1
) (26)
Note that G
T
r
1
= 0 , since matrix G is only com-
posed of n
1
and s
1
, which are orthogonal to vector r
1
.
Then

1
can be described as

1
=
1
l
1
(G
T
G)
1
G
T
( p + b
1
)
=
1
l
1

1
c
1
n
T
1
s
T
1

( p + b
1
) (27)
By substituting Eq. (27) into (23), the following
kinematics relationship (excluding the extra sensors)
would be obtained,
l
i


l
i
h
i


l
1
=

e
i
n
T
1
+ g
i
s
T
1

p
+e
i
(b
1
n
1
)
T
+ g
i
(b
1
s
1
)
T
+( p
1i
l
i
)
T
} (28)
where
e
i
= l
T
i
n
1
, g
i
= l
T
i
s
1
, h
i
= l
T
i
r
1
(i = 2, 3, . . . , 6)
(29)
Therefore, in a symbolic formthat is similar to the
conventional one in Eq. (14), an alternative Jacobian
matrix can be described as
J = J
1
J
1
2
(30)
where
J
1
=

l
1
0 0 0 0 0
h
2
l
2
0 0 0 0
(h
3
+ q
1
h
2
) q
1
l
2
l
3
0 0 0
(h
4
+ q
2
h
2
+ q
5
h
3
) q
2
l
2
q
5
l
3
l
4
0 0
(h
5
+ q
3
h
2
+ q
6
h
3
) q
3
l
2
q
6
l
3
0 l
5
0
(h
6
+ q
4
h
2
+ q
7
h
3
) q
4
l
2
q
7
l
3
0 0 l
6

(31)
J
2
=

J
21
J
23
0 J
22

(32)
with
J
21
=

l
T
1
e
2
n
T
1
+ g
2
s
T
1
(g
3
+ q
1
g
2
) s
T
1

(33)
J
22
=

q
2
(b
12
l
2
)
T
+ q
5
(b
13
l
3
)
T
+(b
14
l
4
)
T
q
3
(b
12
l
2
)
T
+ q
6
(b
13
l
3
)
T
+(b
15
l
5
)
T
q
4
(b
12
l
2
)
T
+ q
7
(b
13
l
3
)
T
+(b
16
l
6
)
T

(34)
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
Su et al.: Development of a Large Parallel-Cable Manipulator 639
J
23
=

(b
1
l
1
)
T
e
2
(b
1
n
1
)
T
+g
2
(b
1
s
1
)
T
+(b
12
l
2
)
T
(g
3
+q
1
g
2
)(b
1
s
1
)
T
+q
1
(b
12
l
2
)
T
+(b
13
l
3
)
T

(35)
In the preceding formulas, q
j
( j = 1, 2, . . . , 7) can be
listed as
13
q
1
= k
1
q
2
= q
5
q
1
+ k
2
, q
5
=
g
4
+ k
2
g
2
g
3
+ k
1
g
2
q
3
= q
6
q
1
+ k
3
, q
6
=
g
5
+ k
3
g
2
g
3
+ k
1
g
2
(36)
q
4
= q
7
q
1
+ k
4
, q
7
=
g
6
+ k
4
g
2
g
3
+ k
1
g
2
and
k
1
=
e
3
e
2
, k
2
=
e
4
e
2
, k
3
=
e
5
e
2
, k
4
=
e
6
e
2
(37)
Kinematics Singularity Analysis Results. Although the
conditions for the singularityof aparallel manipulator
are various, in principle, they result from the singu-
larity of the Jacobian matrix.
16, 17
Now, let us consider
the conditions for singularity of the Jacobian matrix
J . The singularities can be divided into the following
cases:
1. The condition for singularity of the matrix J
1
.
Matrix J
1
is an upper block-triangular, and the
determinant of J
1
is just the multiplication of diagonal
elements, that is,
det(J
1
) = l
1
l
2
l
3
l
4
l
5
l
6
(38)
If and only if any one length among the six legs
is zero, the matrix J
1
is singular. Because large span
cables are used as the actuators, they must have some
length in all cases in practice, and the condition for
this singularity does not hold. That is, this singularity
cannot happen.
2. The condition for singularity of the matrix J
2
.
With Eqs. (32)(34), the determinant of matrix J
2
can be described as
det(J
2
) = det(J
21
) det(J
22
)
= [l
1
(l
5
l
6
)]
[(b
12
l
2
) {(b
13
l
3
) (b
14
l
4
)}]
[l
1
(l
4
l
6
)]
[(b
12
l
2
) {(b
13
l
3
) (b
15
l
5
)}]
+[l
1
(l
4
l
5
)][(b
12
l
2
) {(b
13
l
3
)
(b
16
l
6
)}] + [l
1
(l
3
l
6
)][(b
12
l
2
)
{(b
14
l
4
) (b
15
l
5
)}] [l
1
(l
3
l
5
)]
[(b
12
l
2
) {(b
14
l
4
) (b
16
l
6
)}]
+[l
1
(l
3
l
4
)][(b
12
l
2
) {(b
15
l
5
)
(b
16
l
6
)}] [l
1
(l
2
l
6
)][(b
13
l
3
)
{(b
14
l
4
) (b
15
l
5
)}] + [l
1
(l
2
l
5
)]
[(b
13
l
3
) {(b
14
l
4
) (b
16
l
6
)}]
[l
1
(l
2
l
4
)][(b
13
l
3
) {(b
15
l
5
)
(b
16
l
6
)}] + [l
1
(l
2
l
3
)][(b
14
l
4
)
{(b
15
l
5
) (b
16
l
6
)}] (39)
Substituting the preceding structural parameters
into Eq. (39), the determinant of J
2
along the exam-
ple trajectory with the required tracking velocity is
shown in Figure 6. The minimum value of the deter-
minant of J
2
alongthis example trajectoryis expressed
as follows,
det(J
2
)
min
= 1.131 10
5
(40)
In the same way, the determinant of J
2
over the
entire six-dimensional workspace is checked, and the
minimum of the determinant of J
2
is recorded. Fortu-
nately, the minimum value of the determinant of J
2
is
Figure 6. Determinant of J
2
in the example trajectory
workspace.
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
640 Journal of Robotic Systems2001
always greater than zero. So, one can be condent that
the kinematics singularity of the parallel-cable feed-
supporting system does not happen.
From implementation in practice, however, this
value is cause for concern when it is very close to zero,
at which point the controllability of the parallel-cable
feed-supporting system suffers degradation. So, rear-
rangement of the attached points on the cabin struc-
ture or modication of the location of the six pillars,
to avoid such near singularity, is the primary focus
for future efforts to obtain superior coarse tracking
accuracy.
3.2. Force Singularity Analysis
For the parallel-cable manipulator, there are no ex-
ternal forces or moments other than gravity, and the
weight of the cabin structure (including the Stewart
ne-tuning platform) is w = 20 tons. That is to say,
the force (N) and moment (N m) acting on the cabin
structure can be described as
F = [F
0
M
0
]
T
= [0, 0, 1.96 10
5
, 0, 0, 0]
T
(41)
Let f = [f
1
, f
2
, f
3
, f
4
, f
5
, f
6
]
T
(N) be the vector of ca-
ble tension. Because of the lowvelocity of the parallel-
cable manipulator, based on the principle of virtual
work,
7
the following formula can be obtained,
F
T

P = f
T

l
s
(42)
where

l
s
is the rate of change of the cable lengths (us-
ing the approximate kinematics model with a straight
link). Substituting Eq. (14) into Eq. (42), we have
F
T

P = f
T
J

P (43)
Because

P is arbitrary, Eq. (43) can be rewritten as
F
T
= f
T
J (44)
That is,
J
T
f = F (45)
Using Eq. (45), we can solve the force of each ca-
ble. Because cables are used, the components of f must
be nonnegative to prevent any cable from becoming
slack. When no such f exits, it is impossible to hold the
cabin structure in static equilibriumat that congura-
tion. In other words, force singularity of the parallel-
cable manipulator occurs. As with kinematics singu-
larity, force singularity must be avoided to guarantee
smooth kinematics.
Note that the conditions of force singularity of the
parallel-cable manipulator are of the same formas the
constraints foundin a linear programming problem:
18
Ax = b with x 0. Recall that a basic solution of an
underdetermined system of m linear equations in n
unknown variables can be found by setting n m of
the variables to zero and solving for the remaining
m variables if possible. The fundamental theorem of
linear programmingsays that if there is a feasible solu-
tion, there is a basic feasible solution.
19
Hence, one can
determine whether the force equilibrium J
T
s
f F = 0
can be achieved, merely by checking if any of the up
to

n
m

basic solutions of f = F J
T
are feasible. This
can be realized using the MATLAB command nnls,
which returns the nonnegative least-squares solution
of a systemof linear equations. But for this realization,
it is important to note that when no nonnegative solu-
tion exists, nnls will still return a nonnegative vector
that is optimal in a least-squares sense. Hence, one
must check that the residual error F J
T
f is in
fact zero.
Based on this idea, we have checked the parallel-
cable manipulator for the feed-supporting system,
and the residual error, in the whole six-dimensional
workspace, and have not found any zero or nega-
tive solutions that exist. The force singularity of the
parallel-cable manipulator does not appear tohappen.
Therefore, from the foregoing analysis, one can
be condent that the parallel-cable manipulator for
the feed-supporting system is free from singularities,
which lays a solid foundation for trajectory tracking
control.
4. CONTROL STRATEGY
Because the parallel-cable feed-supporting system
only provides a large workspace, the guarantee of
tracking accuracy is dependent on the Stewart ne-
tuning platform. In our work, straightforward PID
controllers were implemented to fulll coarse tra-
jectory control, and the control strategy is shown in
Figure 7. The controller on each of the winches is in-
dependent of the other ve winch controllers, and op-
erates on the pose of the cabin structure measured by
a laser positioning system. Given the required veloc-
ity of the cabin structure, and using the approximate
kinematics model, the length of each cable can be cal-
culated using Eq. (11); then the straightforward PID
controller can be described as follows,
u
i
= K
P
(l
di
l
i
) + K
I

(l
di
l
i
) dt + K
D
(

l
di


l
i
)
(i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) (46)
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
Su et al.: Development of a Large Parallel-Cable Manipulator 641
Figure 7. Control strategy of parallel-cable feed-supporting system.
in which u
i
is the output of the i th PID controller, l
di
and

l
di
are the desired length and rate of change of
the i th cable corresponding to the desired trajectory,
and l
i
and

l
i
are the real length and rate of change of
the i th cable as detected by a laser positioning system.
K
P
, K
I
, and K
D
are the three parameters of a straight-
forward PID controller.
5. KINEMATICS ACCURACY ANALYSIS
For the parallel manipulator, the kinematics accuracy
of the movable platform is affected by the general-
ization length error l of the actuators, and the cen-
ter location error p of the joints respectively on the
base andthe movable platform.
7, 20
The generalization
length error l includes the errors of the accuracy of
the actuator length encoder and the backlash between
the gears, the deformation of the actuator, and the
accuracy of the servo system.
20
Because the approx-
imate kinematics model is used to accomplish coarse
control, the maximumerror of this approximation be-
comes the main error in the entire six-dimensional
workspace. So, with Eq. (10), the generalization
length error l can be expressed as follows,
l = S
i
= 10 cm (i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) (47)
In order to reduce the difculty of engineering
implementation, the center location error of the joints
p, respectively on the base and movable platform, is
determined as
p = 1 cm (48)
The kinematics analysis of the parallel manipula-
tor can be described as follows,
20
|E| | J
1
l
l| + | J
p
p| (49)
where J
1
l
and J
p
are the matrix factors of l and p,
respectively. These can be described by the following
expressions,
J
l
=

u
T
1
(b
1
u
1
)
T
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
u
T
6
(b
6
u
6
)
T

R
66
(50)
J
p
=

u
T
1
(b
1
u
1
)
T
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
u
T
6
(b
6
u
6
)
T

u
T
1
R u
T
1
0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 u
T
6
R u
T
6

R
636
(51)
in which u
i
is the unit vector of the i th cable using
the approximate kinematics model. E is the pose ac-
curacy of the movable platform, and can be expressed
as
E =

R
61
(52)
where x = [x
p
, y
p
, z
p
]
T
(cm) is the position error
and = [, , ]
T
(rad) is the orientation error.
By substituting these data into the preceding
kinematics accuracy analysis model, the maximum
position and orientation error over the entire six-
dimensional tracking workspace can be veried, and
is found to be
E
max
= [5.94, 12.79, 42.33, 0.1164, 0.0674, 0.0047]
T
(53)
From this formula, it can be seen that the maxi-
mum pose error of the parallel-cable feed-supporting
Wiley-rob rob18-11ar1232 October 10, 2001 15:26
642 Journal of Robotic Systems2001
system does not exceed the tolerance (50 cm) of the
ne-tuning stable platform.
7
6. CONCLUSIONS
Alarge parallel-cable manipulator was developed for
the feed-supporting systemof a next-generation large
radio telescope. From the resulting deductions and
analysis, the following conclusions can be obtained:
1. Considering the real-time requirement of tra-
jectory tracking, the approximate kinematics
model for the cabin structure (using a straight
link) was deduced; the plausible reason for this
approximation was the large load on the cabin
structure (nearly 20 tons). The kinematics accu-
racy of the parallel-cable feed-supporting sys-
tem with this approximate kinematics model
was checked, demonstratingthe validityof this
approximation in theory.
2. The singularity of the parallel-cable feed-
supporting system was analyzed, includ-
ing kinematics and force singularities. The
singularity-free result of the parallel-cable ma-
nipulator lays a solid base for coarse tracking
control. Inpractice, however, near-singularities
will degrade the controllability of the system.
Therefore, future efforts shouldfocus onstrate-
gies to avoid this occurrence, to obtain the su-
perior coarse tracking accuracy.
3. The primarily control strategy of the parallel-
cable supporting system was proposed, and
the kinematics accuracy was also analyzed.
Incorporated with a Stewart ne-tuning plat-
form, it is reasonable to believe that this novel
design project of a next-generation large ra-
dio telescope will be implemented in the near
future.
In fact, the pioneer next-generation large spher-
ical radio telescope, the FAST (Five-hundred aper-
ture spherical radio telescope) Project, is proceeding
systematically based on the design concept outlined
here. The feed-supporting systemconsists of two par-
allel manipulators (a parallel-cable manipulator and a
Stewart ne-tuning platform), with the two manipu-
lators acting in series. Therefore, there is a dynamical
coupling issue regarding the two parallel manipula-
tors. Howtoguarantee independent control of the two
manipulators to satisfy the highaccuracy requirement
is another key problem, and preliminary research is
developing in depth on both of these problems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the National Natu-
ral Science Foundation of China and the Key Project
of the Innovation Program in the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing Astronomical Observation, for -
nancial support. The authors also deeply appreciate
the numerous remarks andsuggestions of anonymous
referees, whichledto signicant improvements inthis
paper.
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