A Dynamically Balanced Kinematically Redundant Planar Parallel Robot

Abstract

A dynamically balanced robotic manipulator does not exert forces or moments onto the base on which it is fixed; this can be important for the performance of parallel robots as they are able to move at very high speeds, albeit usually have a reduced workspace. In recent years, kinematically redundant architectures have been proposed to mitigate the workspace limitations of parallel manipulators and increase their rotational capabilities; however, dynamically balanced versions of these architectures have not yet been presented. In this paper, a dynamically balanced kinematically redundant planar parallel architecture is introduced. The manipulator is composed of parallelogram linkages that reduce the number of counter rotary elements required to moment balance the mechanism. The balancing conditions are derived, and the balancing parameters are optimized using Lagrange multipliers, such that the total mass and inertia of the system is minimized. The elimination of the shaking forces and moments is then verified via a simulation in the multi-body dynamic simulation software msc adams.