Kinematic calibration analysis of 3SPS + 1PS bionic parallel test platform for hip joint simulator

摘要

As the key component of the parallel hip joint simulator, 3SPS + 1PS bionic parallel test platform owns four degrees of freedom including three rotations and one translation. When the moving platform stays at a given translation position, the parallel manipulator can represent three-dimensional rotating gait motions of the hip joint for the purpose of evaluating the friction characteristics of biological materials. Because of the manufacturing and assembling errors, the actual structure parameters of the parallel manipulator are not more accurate than the theoretical values and its reduced simulation accuracy will bring the uncertain evaluation. So in order to improve the precisions in the design, manufacture and assembly of the parallel manipulator, it is necessary to calibrate the kinematic parameters. Considering the structural characteristics of the parallel manipulator, its error model and the corresponding compensation method are established based on the complete differential-coefficient theory. According to the constant values of two orientation angles, the orientation residual matrix is constructed by adopting the incomplete measurement method and the forward kinematics functions, so its cost function can be defined. The iterative algorithm based on the least square method is applied to identify the structure parameters and obtain their optimal solutions, and then the actual kinematic calibration process is simulated by numerical method. The simulation results show that the comprehensive orientation error after calibration is greatly decreased, and the effectiveness of the calibration method is validated.