Kinematic modeling and control of the Hexapod parallel robot

Abstract

The so-called Hexapod robot is a parallel manipulator produced by Quanser Inc. This mechanism is constituted of two triangular rigid bodies, one fixed (the base), and one mobile (the platform) joined together by six kinematic chains (the legs) conforming a structure of the type known as 6-3-PUS. This paper first reports a procedure for computing the forward and inverse kinematics models of the Hexapod robot. After that, we show how to implement an operational space tracking controller which employs a two-loop structure: a resolved motion rate controller (RMRC) in the outer loop and a joint-velocity PI controller in the inner loop. Experimental results of the real-time implementation are included.