Symbolic Dynamics and Controls of a Parallel Manipulator: a Case Study of Stewart Platform

Application of parallel manipulator has received lots of attention recently in the industry and the robotic community due to its high accuracy, high rigidity, high operation speed, high load capacity and high stiffness. Despite these advantages, the kinematic and dynamic analyses of parallel manipulators are extremely complicated. However, such models are important in terms of qualitative analysis of the required actuator forces to realize certain end- effector task (inverse dynamics), and computing the corresponding end-effector task based on certain input to the system (forward dynamics). Till date, not much general symbolic solution is reported to aid the above process. Most of the prior work required some form of heuristic, or introduction of extra spring/damper elements to approximate the solutions. This book addresses the possibility in using the state-of-the-art symbolic manipulation software tool DynaFlexPro to derive the general kinematic and dynamic equation of motion so that more accurate and convenient solution can be computed. We address these issues using the example of Stewart Platform and highlight the solution to the corresponding challenges.