Design and modeling of a novel 6 degree of freedom haptic device

Abstract

This paper presents a new design of haptic device which combines the spherical parallel structure with the serial link configuration. The spherical configuration offers 3DOF for the positioning its platform where a 3DOF serial link is connected. The moving platform is connected to the ground through a passive and active spherical joint configuration. As such, the passive joint can contribute in supporting the static weight and the user interaction forces. Comparisons with the existing designs of the haptic device are made in order to highlight the novelties of the design. Kinematic models of the proposed design are presented. The formulation resulted in novel extensions of the forward kinematics solutions and the novel inverse kinematic modeling and solution of the proposed class of parallel/serial robot configuration is addressed.