A Universal Wire Testing Machine for Enhancing the Performance of Wire-Driven Robots

Abstract: Compared with gears and linkages, wires constitute a lightweight, low-friction transmission mechanism. However, because wires are flexible materials, they tend to introduce large modeling errors, and their adoption in industrial and research robots remains limited.In this study, we built a Universal Wire Testing Machine that enables measurement and adjustment of wire characteristics to improve the performance of wire-driven mechanisms. Using this testing machine, we carried out removal of initial wire stretch, measurement of tension transmission efficiency for eight different diameters of passive pulleys, and measurement of the dynamic behavior of variable-length wires. Finally, we applied the data obtained from this testing machine to the force control of an actual wire-driven robot, reducing the end-effector force error.