Failure recovery for wrench capability of wire-actuated parallel manipulators

—In this paper, the failure of wire­actuated parallel manipulators is examined considering their failure modes. A methodology for investigating the effect of actuator/wire failures on the force/moment capability of manipulators is presented, and the criteria for full and partial recovery from these failures are established. The methodology is also applicable for the cases that the minimum norm solution for the vector of wire tensions gives a negative value for tension by treating the corresponding wire as failed. The proposed methodology is valid for both planar and spatial wire­actuated parallel manipulators.