Mechatronic development and dynamic control of a 3-DOF parallel manipulator

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines: An International Journal, 40:4, 434-452 [September 2012] [copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15397734.2012.687292The aim of this article is to develop, from the mechatronic point of view, a low-cost parallel manipulator (PM) with 3-degrees of freedom (DOF). The robot has to be able to generate and control one translational motion (heave) and two rotary motions (rolling and pitching). Applications for this kind of parallel manipulator can be found at least in driving-motion simulation and in the biomechanical field. An open control architecture has been developed for this manipulator, which allows implementing and testing different dynamic control schemes for a PM with 3-DOF. Thus, the robot developed can be used as a test bench where control schemes can be tested. In this article, several control schemes are proposed and the tracking control responses are compared. The schemes considered are based on passivity-based control and inverse dynamic control. The control algorithm considers point-to-point control or tracking control. When the controller considers the system dynamics, an identified model has been used. The control schemes have been tested on a virtual robot and on the actual prototype. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Plan Nacional de I+D, Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia (FEDER-CICYT) for the partial financing of this study under the projects DPI2009-13830-C02-01 and DPI2010-20814-C02-(01, 02). This work was also supported in part by the CDCHT-ULA Grant I-1286-11-02-B.Vallés Miquel, M.; Díaz-Rodríguez, M.; Valera Fernández, Á.; Mata Amela, V.; Page Del Pozo, AF. (2012). Mechatronic development and dynamic control of a 3-DOF parallel manipulator. 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