You are on page 1of 11

SUPERVISOR

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Ahmad Choudhry

RESEARCHER
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
Stewart Gough Platform

DC RC SERVO BASED STEWART


GOUGH PLATFORM
(Work Report)

Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering,


University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila, Pakistan

Basic Design Components


Figure 1 shows the schematic of an SGP. In this manipulator, the spatial motion of the moving
platform is generated by six identical piston-cylinder actuators. Each piston-cylinder actuator consists
of two parts connected with a prismatic joint. In practice, either hydraulic actuators or electric motors
with ball screw generate the prismatic motion in the limbs. The actuators connect the fixed base to
the moving platform by spherical joints at points Ai and Bi, i =1, 2...,6. Note that in Figure 3.16 all the
attachment points Ais lie in the base plane, and all Bis lie in the moving platform plane. However, in
a general SGP the attachment points are not necessarily confined to lie in a plane. As shown in
Figure 1, and in order to analyze the kinematics of the manipulator, frame {A} is attached to the fixed
base and frame {B} is attached to the moving platform at points OA and OB, respectively. The
kinematic structure of each limb is an SPS arrangement. In this manipulator there exist 14 links
connected by 6 prismatic joints and 12 spherical joints. Moreover, for each SPS kinematic structure,
there exists one passive degree-of-freedom. Hence, this spatial manipulator has six-degrees-offreedom and can serve as a general parallel manipulator to produce a complete spatial movement
with three-degrees-of-freedom in position and three-degrees-of-freedom in orientation. The number
of actuators are also equal to the degrees-of-freedom of the manipulator and hence the manipulator
is fully parallel. Since all the limbs are connected to the moving platform and to the base by spherical
joints, no twisting torques can be transmitted through the limbs. Therefore, the transmitting force
acting on each limb is directed along the longitudinal axis of the limb.

Figure 1: A 6-6P Stewart Gough Platform

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

The degrees of freedom are calculated for different possibilities of joints and links and best one is
employed that gives six degrees of freedom.
The Platform is designed in such a way that it spans a hexagon made in a circle such that all alternate
sides are of the same length but no adjacent sides are of the same length. The geometry of a platform
is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Geometry of a Platform (Fixed or Moving)

Achieving Six Degrees of freedom:


The degrees-of-freedom of a mechanism are the number of independent inputs needed to
completely specify the configuration of the mechanism. In order to determine the degreesof-freedom
of a mechanism, in most cases a general relation can be used in which the degrees-of-freedom of
the mechanism is derived from the number of the links, and the number and type of the joints
incorporated into a mechanism. For this, a general joint with n degrees-of-freedom can be interpreted
as n binary joints with one independent degrees-of-freedom.

Figure 3: Schematic of (a) A Revolute Joint (b) A Prismatic Joint

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Figure 4: Schematic of (a) A Cylindrical Joint (b) A Universal Joint

Figure 5: Schematic of (a) A Spherical Joint (b) A Ball-and-Socket Joint

Figure 6: Schematic of A Planar Joint

Joint Type

No. of Degrees of Freedom fj

Revolute, R

1R

Prismatic, P

1P

Cylindrical, C

1R1P

Universal, U

2R

Spherical, S

3R

Ball-and-Socket, B

3R

Planar Joint, E

2P1R

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Let us define as the degrees-of-freedom of the motions that occur in a space, that is, for a
planar mechanism =3 and for a general spatial mechanism =6. By intuition, the number of degreesof-freedom of a mechanism is equal to the degrees-of-freedom associated with all the links (except
for the base), minus the number of constraints imposed by the joints. Hence, the degrees-of-freedom
of a mechanism can be found from the following relation:

For no passive degrees of freedom in the robot manipulator, the above relation can be written as:

And with passive degrees of freedom in the robot manipulator, the above relation can be written as:

Here I am presenting three hardware models along with their degrees of freedom. In this
section, I will not solve for the degrees of freedom, however, within every section of every hardware
model degrees of freedom are calculated.

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Hardware Components
All hardware models include the following basic parts:

6 DC RC Servo Motors

Integrated Circuit for Servo Motors Control

5V/2A DC Power Supply for Servos

5V/1A DC Power Adapter for Integrated Circuit

Lower wooden Platform

Upper wooden Platform

Connecting Manipulator Links

Servo support strips

Software Simulation
Kinematics Simulation is detailed along with a separate report attached with this report,
however the Webots model is presented here. Figure 7 shows a mechanical model of a 6DOF
parallel robot manipulator designed in Webots Development Environment. This software model is
incorrect as the model lacks degrees of freedom. It employs six RD DC servos including all above
parts.

Figure 7: Inconsistent SGP Designed (model only) using Webots Development Environment

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

First Hardware Model of SGP


As in literature a lot of different designs are available, according to workspace requirement and
availability of material, thats why a proper choice of design was not made and a rough design was
selected for construction. However, this design was having the following characteristics:

Homogeneous Hexagonal Platforms


RC DC Servo Motors
Arduino Controller
Small Spacing between adjacent motors
Sufficient power supply
Non-passive aluminum rods used as links having revolute joints at their both ends

Figure 8: Circular Platforms limit the workspace of SGP


First hardware developed is shown in Figure 9. It was a good model for kinematic testing but was
not feasible for motion cueing. It was having very small workspace as compared to other similar
designs. Also it was not a proper six dof. Along with other drawbacks this model has following main
shortcomings:

Very small workspace


Lack of six degrees of freedom
Homogeneous Hexagonal Platforms (proper design requires irregular hexagonal structure)
Improper rods resulting bad revolute joints

However, this was a compact model that needed just AC supply of 220/230V at 50Hz frequency.
All other things were integrated inside the box including power supply, and controller.

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Figure 9: First hardware model having poor quality revolute joints and circular platforms
Degrees of freedom
Degrees of freedom can be calculated using the relations expressed in a previous section and
again given by:

For SGP, = 6 as there is 3D robot manipulator, n = 14 the total number of links including legs and
platforms, j = 18 the number of joints, f1 = 1 for all revolute joints, fp = 0 as no passive joints.
F = 6(14-18-1) + 18X1 0
F = -12
Here comes the main drawback of zero degrees of freedom. How to correct this? We will see in
next sections.

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Second Hardware Model of SGP


First SGP model was designed by having some novice knowledge of its structure. To compensate
its workspace and degrees of freedom another design was made using the good quality revolute
joints and non-homogeneous structure of platforms as shown in Figure 2 and redrawn in Figure 10 for
ease. It improved satisfactorily, the workspace by enlarged limb lengths and good quality of revolute
joints but unfortunately it was not able to achieve six degrees of freedom. This design was having
the following characteristics:

Non-homogeneous Hexagonal Platforms


RC DC Servo Motors
Arduino Controller
Large Spacing between adjacent motors
Sufficient power supply
Passive copper rods used as links having revolute joints at their both ends

Figure 10: Geometry of a Platform (Fixed or Moving)


Second hardware developed is shown in Figure 11. It is a good model for kinematic testing but again
it is not feasible for motion cueing due to the lack of degrees-of-freedom. Along with other drawbacks
this model has following main shortcomings:

Lack of six degrees of freedom


Improper rods resulting

However, this is a compact model that needed just AC supply of 220/230V at 50Hz frequency.
All other things were integrated inside the box including power supply, and controller.

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Figure 11: Second hardware model having good quality revolute joints and irregular platforms
Degrees of freedom
Degrees of freedom can be calculated using the relations expressed in a previous section and
again given by:

For SGP, = 6 as there is 3D robot manipulator, n = 14 the total number of links including legs and
platforms, j = 18 the number of joints, f1 = 1 for all revolute joints, fp = 6 as no passive joints.
F = 6(14-18-1) + 18X1 6
F = -18
Again comes the main drawback of -6 degrees of freedom. How to correct this? We will see in next
section.

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

Third Hardware Model of SGP


Both above models have same drawback of lacking degrees of freedom. This can be
improved by using both sides of the all limb lengths with spherical joints. At the time of construction
of previous models these joints were not available. So now if we install both top and bottom joints
as spherical joints we come to a correct model.
Degrees of freedom
Degrees of freedom can be calculated using the relations expressed in a previous section and
again given by:

For SGP, = 6 as there is 3D robot manipulator, n = 14 the total number of links including legs and
platforms, j = 18 the number of joints, f1 = 1 for revolute joints, f2 = 1 for spherical joints, fp = 6 as
no passive joints.
F = 6(14-18-1) + 6X1 + 12X3 6
F=6
So by a single modification in second design i.e. by using spherical joints at the ends of all copper
rods we can achieve a best design of SGP.

Kinematics of Stewart Platform

Hazoor Ahmad

2013-MS-EE-79

EEED, UET, Taxila

You might also like