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The Octahedral Hexarot - a novel 6-DOF parallel manipulator

journal contribution
posted on 2012-01-01, 00:00 authored by Mats Isaksson, T Brogardh, Matthew WatsonMatthew Watson, Saeid Nahavandi, P Crothers
A novel 6-DOF parallel kinematic manipulator named the Octahedral Hexarot is presented and analyzed. It is shown that this manipulator has the important benefits of combining a large positional workspace in relation to its footprint with a sizable range of platform rotations. These features are obtained by combining a rotation-symmetric actuating arm system with links in an octahedral-like configuration. Thus the manipulator consists of a central cylindrical column with six actuated rotating upper arms that can rotate indefinitely around the central column. Each upper arm is connected to a manipulated platform by one 5-DOF lower arm link. The link arrangement of the Octahedral Hexarot is inspired by the original Gough platform. The manipulated platform is an equilateral triangle and the joint positions on the upper arms approximately form an equilateral triangle. A task dependent optimization procedure for the structural parameters is proposed and the workspace of the resulting manipulator is analyzed in depth.

History

Journal

Mechanism and machine theory

Volume

55

Pagination

91 - 102

Publisher

Pergamon

Location

Oxford, England

ISSN

0094-114X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, Elsevier