An Autonomous and Safe Homing Strategy for Parallel Kinematic Five-Bar Manipulators

Abstract

This article is concerned with the homing of parallel kinematic five-bar manipulators that have non-absolute position sensors. A strategy for joint-based homing is proposed which requires simple homing switches only. This strategy allows the drives of a five-bar mechanism to be referenced without user interaction. Though well established for single drives its application to coupled kinematics is quite challenging, due to the risk of workspace violation and uncontrollable approaching of singularities. Mathematical relations are presented which are necessary to place the home position in such a way that homing can be accomplished safely from any starting point. Under consideration of the results presented, an autonomous and safe homing procedure can be implemented on five-bar manipulators with the help of simple homing switches.