Abstract: First, an overview of the research work on the SACSO project at ONERA in France is presented, and then the key issues of six DOFs wire-driven PKMs for aircraft wind tunnels are addressed.And the key issues are focused on structural design,kinematics analysis,workspace analysis and synthesis,static stiffness analysis,motion control scheme,and force control scheme.The results demonstrate that the structure of a wire-driven PKM should be based on the aircraft model and its workspace volume.The PID and self-adaptive control schemes are optional solutions for the motion control considering the decoupling and linearization of the dynamic model.And the classical impedance and force/position hybrid control schemes can be borrowed for the force control at the first stage.However,the development of a better force control strategy for the six DOFs wire-driven PKMs for aircraft wind tunnels is still underway.

Key words: theory of machines and mechanisms, wire-driven parallel manipulator, overview, wind tunnel, aircraft, six DOFs