Mechatronic design, experimental setup, and control architecture design of a novel 4 DoF parallel manipulator

"This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in [include the complete citation information for the final versíon of the article as published in the Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines 2018 [copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15397734.2017.1355249."[EN] Although parallel manipulators started with the introduction of architectures with six degrees of freedom, a vast number of applications require less than six degrees of freedom. Consequently, scholars have proposed architectures with three and four degrees of freedom, but relatively few four degrees of freedom parallel manipulators have become prototypes, especially of the two rotation and two translation motion types. In this article, we explain the mechatronics design, prototype, and control architecture design of a four degrees of freedom parallel manipulators with two rotation and two translation motions. We chose to design a four degrees of freedom manipulator based on the motion needed to complete the tasks of lower limb rehabilitation. To the author's best knowledge, parallel manipulators between three and six degrees of freedom for rehabilitation of lower limb have not been proposed to date. The developed architecture enhances the three minimum degrees of freedom required by adding a four degrees of freedom, which allows combinations of normal or tangential efforts in the joints, or torque acting on the knee. We put forward the inverse and forward displacement equations, describe the prototype, perform the experimental setup, and develop the hardware and control architecture. The tracking accuracy experiments from the proposed controller show that the manipulator can accomplish the required application.The authors wish to thank the Plan Nacional de I + D, Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia (FEDER-CICYT) for the partial funding of this study under project DPI2013-44227-R. We also want to thank the Fondo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion (FONACIT-Venezuela) for its financial support under the project No. 2013002165.Vallés Miquel, M.; Araujo-Gómez, P.; Mata Amela, V.; Valera Fernández, Á.; Díaz-Rodríguez, M.; Page Del Pozo, AF.; Farhat, N. (2018). Mechatronic design, experimental setup, and control architecture design of a novel 4 DoF parallel manipulator. Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines. 46(4):425-439. https://doi.org/10.1080/15397734.2017.1355249S425439464Araujo-Gómez, P., Díaz-Rodriguez, M., Mata, V., Valera, A., & Page, A. (2016). Design of a 3-UPS-RPU Parallel Robot for Knee Diagnosis and Rehabilitation. 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