Wrench Capability of a Stewart Platform With Series Elastic Actuators

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method for analyzing linear series elastic actuators (SEAs) in a parallel-actuated Stewart platform, which has full six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) in position and orientation. SEAs can potentially provide a better human-machine interface for the user. However, in the study of parallel-actuated systems with full 6DOF, the effect of compliance in series with actuators has not been adequately studied from the perspective of wrench capabilities. We found that some parameters of the springs and the stroke lengths of the linear actuators play a major role in the actuation limits of the system. This is an important consideration when adding SEAs into a Stewart platform or other parallel-actuated robots to improve their human usage.