Mechatronics Development and Dynamic Control of a 3 DOF Parallel Manipulator

The aim of this paper is to develop, from the mechatronic point-of-view a low-cost
parallel manipulator (PM) with 3-DOF. This robot has to be able to generate and to control
one translational motion and two rotary motions (rolling and pitching). Applications for this
kind parallel manipulator can be found at least in driving-motion simulation and in the biomechanical
field. An open control architecture has been developed for this robot, which allows
implementing and testing different dynamic control schemes for PM with 3-DOF. Thus,
the developed robot can be used as a test bench where control schemes can be tested. In this
paper, several control schemes are proposed and the tracking control responses are compared.
The considered schemes are based on 1) Passivity-based control and 2) Inverse dynamic
control. The control algorithm considers point-to-point control or tracking control.
When the controller considers the system dynamics, an identified model has been used. The
control schemes have been tested over a virtual robot and over the actual prototype.