Design, analysis and simulation of a device for measuring the inertia parameters of rigid bodies

Abstract

A device for measuring the inertia parameters of rigid bodies has been presented in this paper. It’s actually a 3-URU pure rotation parallel mechanism. To improve the measuring accuracy, an adjusting mechanism composed of dovetail guides, bevel gears and a motor in the measuring device, is adopted to facilitate the adjustments of the center of gravity of the rigid body. Only three 16-bits encoders and three load cells are needed. The direct kinematic model of the parallel mechanism is built and the kinematic analysis is accomplished. The dynamic behaviors are investigated by Adams modeling. Simulation results are presented and show that the design of the device can meet the technical demand on inertia parameter measurement.