Application of Partial Redundant Servomotor Approach to Shaking Balancing of Flexible Mechanisms: A Finite Element Analysis

摘要

This paper applies an active approach to balancing mechanisms without ignoring the flexibility of the link. The approach does not need any "extra" servomotors but makes use of the existing servomotors in a mechanism. The word "existing" refers to the fact that these motors are necessary for its functioning in path generation, body guidance, or input-output relation generation. The general idea underpinning the approach is the fact that servomotors in a mechanism may have some "spare" functions which may be fully utilized for shaking balancing (shaking force balancing and shaking moment balancing) of the mechanism. Since the "spare" functions are "extra" or "redundant" while the servomotor is already present to generate motion, thus the approach is termed "partial redundant servomotor (PRSM)". This method was first invented and applied to the rigid mechanisms for improving shaking balancing in the authors' previous study. The current paper aims to see the effectiveness of PRSM on the shaking balancing of flexible mechanisms. Throughout the paper, a four-bar flexible mechanism example is used to illustrate the approach. The PRSM will be compared to an existing active balancing approach. The FEM simulation results show that the magnitudes of shaking force and shaking moment of the example mechanism using the PRSM are reduced by 42.76% and 44.32%, respectively, comparing with the existing active balancing approach which reduces the same qualities by 24.37% and 24.12%. So the PRSM is a relatively good method since it is easy to implement and has no extra costs incurred for the shaking balancing of mechanisms, and the approach can be broadly applied to any flexible mechanisms.