EXTREME REACHES AND MAXIMAL REACHABLE WORKSPACE FOR ROTARY TOOLS MOUNTED ON A STEWART PLATFORM MANIPULATOR

摘要

A new type of problem associated with the extreme reaches of the Stewart platform manipulator is dealt with in this paper. Given a specified orientation of the tool axis, the problem involves finding the extreme distance that the tool bit mounted on the mobile platform can reach from its home position along any specified direction. During the motion, the mobile platform is allowed to be rotated about the tool axis to adjust the configuration of the driving mechanism to prevent premature activation of the kinematic constraints. A numerical optimization algorithm based on the concept of the cyclic coordinate descent method is developed for solving this problem, in which all three types of kinematic constraints, namely the actuator stroke constraint, the passive joint limitations, and the link interference conditions, have been taken into account. In addition, a numerical example is presented to demonstrate the ability of the proposed method to find the optimal reachable workspace of the robot.