Robotic Stewart Platform

grabcad

A Stewart platform is a type of parallel robot that incorporates six prismatic actuators. These actuators are mounted in pairs to the mechanism's base, crossing over to three mounting points on a top plate. Objects placed on the top plate can be moved in the six degrees of freedom in which it is possible for a freely-suspended body to move. These correspond to the three linear movements x, y, z (lateral, longitudinal and vertical), and the three rotations pitch, roll, & yaw. The Stewart platform design is extensively used in flight simulation, particularly in the so-called full flight simulator for which all 6 degrees of freedom are required. In this role, the payload is a replica cockpit and a visual display system, normally of several channels, for showing the outside-world visual scene to the aircraft crew that are being trained.The robotic Stewart platform shown in the video was developed as a final year project. It has been fabricated in ABSplus material using a 3D printer, and employs 6 r/c servos (driven by an SSC-32 controller) as actuators for the prismatic joints. A program written in Matlab is used to calculate the platform's inverse kinematics and send via RS-232 the appropriate commands to the SSC-32, in order to achieve the desired position/orientation for the object mounted on the top plate.2013 Final year project by Kalantzis S. SpirosRobotics and Automation LaboratoryMechanical Engineering Dept.Technological Educational Institute of Crete (Heraklion, Greece).Project supervisor: Dr. J. Fasoulas