Towards high accelerations: is actuation redundancy a good solution for planar parallel robotic manipulators?

• Grant number: 11/15605-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2011
• End date: October 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering Design
• Principal Investigator: Maira Martins da Silva
• Grantee: Douglas Martins Rocha
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this proposal is to study whether the actuation redundancy can be a good alternative for parallel planar manipulators to achieve high accelerations. It is known that the actuation redundancy promotes, among other benefits, a significant reduction in the singularities and a homogenization on the actuation forces. However, evaluating if the actuation redundancy is a good solution to increase dynamic performance of a robotic system is not trivial, because this solution means not only that there is more torque available, but also that the inertia of the system has been considerably increased. In order to answer that quest, the scholarship applicant is going to develop kinematic and dynamic models of three different configurations of a planar parallel manipulator. Besides that, the applicant should also indicate objective metrics for evaluating the performance of the different configurations. In this way, the applicant can investigate the design trade-offs between different metrics and whether actuation redundancy is a good solution for increasing the dynamic performance of planar manipulators. (AU)