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RESEARCHER
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
Stewart Gough Platform
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
Joint Type
Revolute, R
1R
Prismatic, P
1P
Cylindrical, C
1R1P
Universal, U
2R
Spherical, S
3R
Ball-and-Socket, B
3R
Planar Joint, E
2P1R
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
Hardware Components
All hardware models include the following basic parts:
6 DC RC Servo Motors
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
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79
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.
Hazoor Ahmad
2013-MS-EE-79