Publication

A unified method for computing position and orientation workspaces of general Stewart platforms

Conference Article

Conference

ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC)

Edition

2011

Pages

959-968

Doc link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/DETC2011-47836

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Abstract

The workspace of a Stewart platform is a complex six-dimensional volume embedded in the Cartesian space defined by six pose parameters. Because of its large dimension and complex shape, such workspace is difficult to compute and represent, so that comprehension on its structure is being gained by studying its three-dimensional slices. While successful methods have been given to determine the constant-orientation slice, the computation and appropriate visualization of the constant-position slice (also known as the orientation workspace) has proved to be a challenging task. This paper presents a unified method for computing both of such slices, and any other ones defined by fixing three pose parameters, on general Stewart platforms involving mechanical limits on the active and passive joints. Additional advantages over previous methods include the ability to determine all connected components of the workspace, and any motion barriers present in its interior.

Categories

manipulators, multi-robot systems, robot kinematics.

Author keywords

workspace, Stewart platform

Scientific reference

O. Bohigas, L. Ros and M. Manubens. A unified method for computing position and orientation workspaces of general Stewart platforms, 2011 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2011, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 959-968.