ARVIN RASOULZADEH, TU Wien, Austria
Variational Path Optimization of Linear Pentapods
A “linear pentapod” is a five degree-of-freedom parallel robot with a linear motion platform. From an applied point of view, these mechanisms can be of great importance as they are capable to perform some fundamental industrial tasks such as 5-axis milling and cutting.
Kinematic singularities correspond to configurations where the pentapod is shaky (infinitesimal moveable). Hence avoiding such situations in planning of a path for execution of a task is of crucial importance.
Under consideration of some mechanical limits, we modify a given motion in a way that the manipulator increases a reasonable distance to the singularities while the motion is being smoothed.
Formally, this process is called variational path-optimization which is the systematic optimization of a path by manipulating its energy, bending energy and its distance to the obstacles, which are in this case the kinematic singularities.