一种三构态变胞并联机构运动学及工作空间分析

常规并联机构运动不够灵活,难以提高机械腿的地面适应能力.本文在可转轴线转动副的基础上,提出一种可用于机械腿的2-PrRS+PR(P)S变胞并联机构.首先分析机构3种构态的自由度特性,然后建立机构的逆运动学模型,给出其约束条件及主要参数的取值范围.再采用蒙特卡洛法得到该机构的工作空间点云图,用自适应网格划分方法计算此空间的体积.与无变胞特性的同参数并联机构进行对比,发现工作空间形状有明显差异,且体积增大了29.36%.最后分析了其主要结构参数对工作空间体积的影响.该工作可为该变胞并联机构的尺度综合提供依据.     

直线超声电机驱动的并联微操作手的结构设计

提出一种基于直线超声电机驱动的两指微操作手,它具有纳米级的定位精度,其操作空间在毫米级的范围,提高了微操作手的实用性.该操作手采用并联机构,以直线超声电机作为滑动副驱动微操作手,以柔性铰链作为转动副.利用机构学分析了微操作手的运行机理.利用ADAMS软件建立了微操作手的运动学模型,分析了微操作手的输出特性,包括探针在时域的位置、速度和加速特性,以及操作空间.直线超声电机的使用简化了微操作手的结构,增加了操作空间.柔性铰链作为转动副能够保证纳米级的定位精度.微操作手原型机的初步试验表明,它能够用于微小颗粒的实时抓取,其探针的位移分辨率达到100 nm,工作位移达到2 mm.     

一种新型并联机床的驱动输入选择

基于螺旋理论,将并联机床全部分支中可作为驱动输入的运动副锁定后,可以得到作用在动平台上的 约束螺旋．选出与机构的自由度数目相同的约束螺旋与机构本身固有的结构约束螺旋组成约束矩阵,根据约束矩阵 的秩确定输入的合理性．将约束力／力矩矩阵的最小奇异值与最大奇异值之比定义为约束力／力矩各向同性度,并 以此为指标对各驱动输入组合的优劣性进行评价．驱动输入选择结果表明,该并联机床存在5 种合理输入,其中以 UPS 分支中的5 个P 副为驱动输入是最优组合．     

平面全柔性3-DOF过驱动并联机构的最优综合

以设计全柔性多自由度过驱动并联机构为目标，研究了平面3-DOF 4RRR过驱动并联机构的最优综合问题．从一般四分支3-DOF平面并联机构出发，建立了机构的运动学模型；给出了机构的4种可能拓扑结构分类，对不同拓扑结构类型机构的运动学和力学性能进行了分析比较．建立了并联机构全工作空间操作性改善优化模型，采用遗传算法进行优化设计并给出了实例，根据优化实例的结果设计制造了平面全柔性三自由度过驱动并联机构．以上方法对其它全柔性并联机构的优化设计具有参考价值．     

并联刨床刚度分析及实验研究

为了提高刨削加工能力，而采用考虑到并联机构的特点而提出了并联刨床的概念并对其进行了简单说明．采用对机床进行分解的方法对机床的各功能模块分别建立刚度模型，并利用变形线性叠加的原理对机床的并联部分刚度进行分析．采用有限元软件对机床的床身框架及平面约束机构部分的刚度进行分析．并以仿真和实验加工的方式进行了刚度特性研究．     

冗余驱动仿下颌运动机器人工作空间分析及试验验证

根据人类下颌系统冗余驱动的生理特性,即下颌受颞下颌关节约束且受多于本身自由度数目的下颌肌肉驱动的特点,介绍了一种采用点接触高副模拟人体颞下颌关节的6PUS-2HKP(higher kinematic pair)冗余驱动并联机构来完成下颌运动,该机构可应用于牙科义齿性能测试.首先,建立机器人的坐标系,针对机构存在点接触高副的特点,分析和推导了冗余并联机构的独立位置参数和运动学方程.然后,采用下颌运动轨迹描记仪对实验对象下颌切点边缘性运动进行了采集.通过分析各驱动机构及点接触高副的运动范围,采用数值分析的方法获得了机器人的工作空间.最后,采用实验的方法,测量了仿下颌运动机器人做最大运动时下颌切点的运动轨迹.通过对比实验对象切点边缘性运动和工作空间仿真结果可知,该仿下颌运动机器人能够满足人类下颌运动空间要求.     

耦合型3自由度并联稳定平台机构及其运动特征

基于舰船摇荡运动的耦合特征,采用耦合型3-SRR/SRU 3自由度并联机构作为舰载稳定平台机构,实现了稳定平台三轴驱动、动平台五轴联动补偿的目标．运用螺旋理论分析了机构的自由度和运动特征, 并讨论了输入关节选取的合理性|采用坐标等效运动的方法,建立机构耦合运动约束方程,得到了位置解及工作空间．本文将耦合型3-SRR/SRU 3自由度并联机构用于舰载稳定平台五轴联动补偿,拓展了少自由度并联机构的应用领域．     

柔索驱动三自由度球面并联机构运动学与静力学研究

柔索驱动并联机器人采用柔索代替连杆作为机器人的驱动元件,它结合了并联结构和 柔索驱动的优点．文章提出了一种新型带有约束机构的并联柔索驱动机器人，采用四根柔索 驱动．由于约束机构的引入，机器人可实现在空间的三维转动．介绍柔索驱动并联机器 人的机构构型，给出了位姿逆解，建立了静力平衡方程和运动学方程，讨论了柔索拉力的确 定方法．研究结果证明在加入了约束机构后，柔索机器人可以实现更多的运动形式，这就为 更广泛的应用柔索驱动成为可能．     

三轴差动式管道机器人驱动单元自适应特性实验研究

为验证三轴差动式管道机器人驱动单元机械自适应特性,深层解析三轴差动式驱动单元的机构传动原 理,研制了包含三轴差动驱动单元、模拟运行环境、性能测试系统在内的机器人自适应特性实验系统．以定量评价 三轴差动驱动单元特性为目标,建立了性能指标评价集,客观评价了新型三轴差动驱动单元的性能．实验研究表明, 三轴差动式管道机器人驱动单元对管道环境的几何约束的各种变化具有良好的机械自适应特性．     

基于复合静电驱动结构的硅微机械扭转微镜

为了改善硅微机械扭转微镜的机电耦合特性,降低器件的驱动电压并提高其工作可靠性,提出了几种新颖的基于复合静电驱动结构的硅微机械扭转微镜.提出的硅微机械扭转微镜将垂直扭转梳齿静电驱动结构、侧壁平行板电容静电驱动结构有机结合,实现了两种静电驱动方式的复合驱动,同时设计了内外双镜面结构,通过内外双镜面结构,实现了微镜的差动复合驱动,理论分析、模拟仿真与测试结果表明,通过上述两个方面新颖的设计,新结构显著降低了器件的驱动电压.同时为了提高器件的工作可靠性,在设计折叠梁柔性支撑结构时,将梁的不同位置设计成不同的厚度,对于硅微机械扭转微镜扭转过程中容易疲劳的梁部分加大了其厚度,从而在不影响器件扭转性能的前提下,明显提高了器件的可靠性.利用有限元方法对器件的力学特性和机电耦合特性进行了系统的仿真,获得了影响器件机电特性的关键结构参数.器件基于SOI晶片,采用表面硅工艺与体硅工艺相结合的方式加工制造,采用SOI晶片显著降低了微镜镜面的表面粗糙度,提高了其光反射能力.最后利用原子力显微镜对微镜镜面的表面粗糙度进行了测量和分析,实验结果表面微镜表面具有16nm的表面粗糙度,完全可以满足光学应用的需要.     

Design-by-Optimization and Control of Redundantly Actuated Parallel Kinematics Sliding Star

The paper deals with the design and control of an example of redundantly actuated parallel kinematic structure that can be a machine tool. The principle of redundant actuation brings parallel kinematic structures which do not have singular positions in workspace and which has increased dynamic, stiffness and accuracy properties. There is proposed a parallel kinematic structure called Sliding Star that has promising dynamic and stiffness properties. The conceptual design-by-optimization of this structure is briefly described. The redundantly actuated parallel kinematics have control problem due to mutual fighting of redundant drives. There is described the solution of this problem. Based on the investigated redundantly actuated parallel kinematics there has been built a laboratory prototype. The experimental results from the control of this prototype are briefly presented.     

Efficient workspace generation for binary manipulators with many actuators

Binary actuators have only two discrete states, both of which are stable without feedback. As a result, manipulators with binary actuators have a finite number of states. Major benefits of binary actuation are that extensive feedback control is not required, task repeatability can be very high, and two-state actuators are generally very inexpensive, thus resulting in low-cost robotic mechanisms. Determining the workspace of a binary manipulator is of great practical importance for a variety of applications. For instance, a representation of the workspace is essential for trajectory tracking, motion planning, and the optimal design of binary manipulators. Given that the number of configurations attainable by binary manipulators grows exponentially in the number of actuated degrees of freedom, 0(2), brute force representation of binary manipulator workspaces is not feasible in the highly actuated case. This article describes an algorithm that performs recursive calculations starting at the end-effector and terminating at the base. The implementation of these recursive calculations is based on the macroscopically serial structure and the discrete nature of the manipulator. As a result, the method is capable of approximating the workspace in linear time, O(n), where the slope depends on the acceptable error. © 1995 John Wiley b Sons, Inc.     

CAT4 (Cable Actuated Truss—4 Degrees of Freedom): A Novel 4 DOF Cable Actuated Parallel Manipulator

The CAT4 (Cable Actuated Truss—4 degrees of freedom) robot is a novel, passively jointed, parallel robot utilizing six control cables for actuation. The architecture has been under development at the Queen's University Robotics Laboratory. The robot utilizes a passive jointed linkage with 18 revolute joints to constrain the end effector motion and provide the desired structural stability, restricting the end effector to 3 translational degrees of freedom (DOF) and 1 DOF for end effector pitch. This central mechanism together with winched cable actuation gives a number of important benefits for applications where the advantages of a parallel robot are required in conjunction with light weight. Six electric motor driven winches control the length of the cable actuators that extend from the top frame to points on the end effector raft and jointed linkage to create a stiff, but lightweight, actuated robot. Simulation work on the robot is presented giving the kinematics, including a computational estimate of the workspace for a specific configuration. Results of computational simulation of the motion of the manipulator and a discussion of the advantages and potential difficulties are also presented. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Kinematic design of a 6-DOF parallel manipulator with decoupled translation and rotation

A new three-limb, six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) parallel manipulator (PM), termed a selectively actuated PM (SA-PM), is proposed. The end-effector of the manipulator can produce 3-DOF spherical motion, 3-DOF translation, 3-DOF hybrid motion, or complete 6-DOF spatial motion, depending on the types of the actuation (rotary or linear) chosen for the actuators. The manipulator architecture completely decouples translation and rotation of the end-effector for individual control. The structure synthesis of SA-PM is achieved using the line geometry. Singularity analysis shows that the SA-PM is an isotropic translation PM when all the actuators are in linear mode. Because of the decoupled motion structure, a decomposition method is applied for both the displacement analysis and dimension optimization. With the index of maximal workspace satisfying given global conditioning requirements, the geometrical parameters are optimized. As a result, the translational workspace is a cube, and the orientation workspace is nearly unlimited.     

A new inverse kinematics algorithm for binary manipulators with many actuators

In this paper we present a new, and extremely fast, algorithm for the inverse kinematics of discretely actuated manipulator arms with many degrees of freedom. Our only assumption is that the arm is macroscopically serial in structure, meaning that the overall structure is a serial cascade of units with each unit having either a serial or parallel kinematic structure. Our algorithm builds on previous works in which the authors and coworkers have used the workspace density function in a breadthfirst search for solving the inverse kinematics problem. The novelty of the method presented here is that only the 'mean' of this workspace density function is used. Hence the requirement of storing a sampled version of the workspace density function (which is a function on a six-dimensional space in the case of a spatial manipulator) is circumvented. We illustrate the technique with both planar revolute and variable-geometry-truss manipulators, and briefly describe a new manipulator design for which this algorithm is applicable.     

Generation and application of prestress in redundantly full-actuated parallel manipulators

This paper addresses the inverse dynamics of redundantly actuated parallel manipulators. Such manipulators feature advantageous properties, such as a large singularity-free workspace, a high possible acceleration of the moving platform, and higher dexterity and manipulability. Redundant actuation further allows for prestress, i.e., internal forces without generating end-effector wrenches. This prestress can be employed for various goals. It can potentially be used to avoid backlash in the driving units or to generate a desired tangential end-effector stiffness. In this paper, the application of prestress is addressed upon the inverse dynamics solution. A general formulation for the dynamics of redundantly actuated parallel manipulators is given. For the special case of simple redundancy, a closed-form solution is derived in terms of a single prestress parameter. This yields an explicit parametrization of prestress. With this formulation an open-loop prestress control is proposed and applied to the elimination of backlash. Further, the generation of tangential end-effector stiffness is briefly explained. The approach is demonstrated for a planar 4RRR manipulator and a spatial heptapod.     

Hierarchical design,laboratory prototype fabrication and machining tests of a novel 5-axis hybrid serial-parallel kinematic machine tool

Hybrid serial-parallel kinematic machine tool (HSPKMT) has been regarded as a promising solution for 5-axis machining in many industrial fields. A typical HSPKMT can be constructed by integrating a parallel functional module with a serial functional module. Following this way, the authors construct a novel 5-axis HSPKMT through the integration of an over constrained redundantly actuated parallel module with a stack-up serial gantry. The proposed HSPKMT can accomplish a 5-axis motion capacity with three translations and two rotations (3T2R). A hierarchical design method is proposed to facilitate the design issues of the 5-axis HSPKMT. According to the hierarchical method, a laboratory prototype is designed with a top-down strategy and then fabricated with a bottom-up strategy. An open-architecture computer numerical control (CNC) system is developed to drive the fabricated prototype. A kinematic analysis is carried out to reveal necessary kinematic properties of the proposed HSPKMT. The reachable workspace and task workspace are defined to graphically illustrate the machine's position-orientation capabilities. A workspace performance index is formulated to compare the proposed 5-axis HSPKMT with several 5-axis machine tools. Based the kinematic analysis, a 5-axis machining methodology is developed and further applied to the laboratory prototype to perform 5-axis machining tasks. The machining tests verify that the proposed novel HSPKMT possesses desirable 5-axis machining capability with the tolerance rang of ±0.05 mm. This also implies that the proposed hierarchical design method as well as the 5-axis machining methodology can be further applied to other types of HSPKMTs with minor modifications.     

Workspace and dynamic performance evaluation of the parallel manipulators in a spray-painting equipment

The paper deals with the workspace and dynamic performance evaluation of the PRR–PRR parallel manipulator in spray-painting equipment. Functional workspace of planar fully parallel robots is often limited because of interference among their mechanical components. The proposed 3-DOF planar parallel manipulator with two kinematic chains connecting the moving platform to the base can reduce interference while still maintaining 3 DOFs. Based on the kinematics, four working modes are analyzed and singularity is studied. The workspace is investigated and the inverse dynamics is formulated using the virtual work principle. The dynamic performance evaluation indices are designed on the basis of maximum and minimum magnitude of acceleration vector of the moving platform produced by a unit actuated force. The index not only can evaluate the accelerating performance of a manipulator, but also can reflect the isotropy of accelerating performance. Workspace and dynamic performances of the four working modes are compared and the optimal working mode for the painting of a large object with conical surface is determined.     

Kinematics of a Family of Translational Parallel Mechanisms with Three 4‐DOF Legs and Rotary Actuators

This paper focuses on the kinematics of a family of translational parallel mechanisms equipped with three 4‐DOF legs and rotary actuators. The direct and the inverse position problems are solved in analytical form, the velocity analysis is carried out, the workspace is determined and the loci of both kinematic singularities and isotropic configurations are derived. Furthermore, the problem of singularity avoidance by means of actuator redundancy is addressed and some solutions are proposed. Two special architectures are finally considered as case studies: in the first, the three actuation axes are mutually orthogonal; in the second, two actuation axes are parallel to each other and the third is perpendicular to them. The comparison of the two architectures on the basis of kinematic considerations allows for the selection of the second one as a preferable solution. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Inverse Kinematics and Workspace Analysis of a 3 DOF Flexible Parallel Humanoid Neck Robot

To mimic the human neck’s three degree-of-freedom (DOF) rotation motion, we present a novel bio-inspired cable driven parallel robot with a flexible spine. Although there exists many parallel robotic platform that can mimic the human neck motion, most of them have only two DOF, with the yaw motion being actuated separately. The presented flexible parallel humanoid neck robot employs a column compression spring as the main body of cervical vertebra and four cables as neck muscles to connect the base and moving platform. The pitch and roll movements of moving platform are realized by the two dimensional lateral bending motion of the flexible spring, and a bearing located at the top of the compression spring and embedded in the moving platform is used to achieve the yaw motion of the moving platform. By combing the force and torque balance equations with the lateral bending statics of the spring, inverse kinematics and optimizing the cable placements to minimize the actuating cable force are investigated. Moreover, the translational workspace corresponding to pitch and roll movements and rotational workspace corresponding to yaw movement are analyzed with positive cable tension constraint. Extensive simulations were performed and demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed inverse kinematics and workspace analysis of the novel 3 DOF flexible parallel humanoid neck robot.