Design of reconfigurable planar parallel robot

Abstract

A 3-RPR planar parallel robot is a kind of planar mechanism; three prismatic actuators connected with the end effector in parallel. This thesis will begin with the kinematic analysis for the manipulator to determinate the optimized dimension of the manipulator, including the workspace analysis, determinate of Jacobian analysis, and Direction Selective Index (DSI) analysis. Secondly, a multi-body bond graph system will be built for the 3-RPR planar parallel manipulator (PPM), along with three PID controllers, which give commands to three DC motors respectively. The advantage of bond graphs is that they can integrate different types of dynamics systems. The manipulator, the control and the motor can be modelled and simulated altogether in the same process. The bond graph will be established for each rigid body with body-fixed coordinate’s reference frames, which are connected with parasitic elements (damping and compliance) to each other. Furthermore, Virtual Work method will be used to evaluate the previous dynamic analysis result. Eventually, the Solidworks design will be demonstrated with images, which show the overall appearance and a detailed drawing of this project. After the mechanical design of the manipulator is finished, the controller design is considered as a future work to conduct.