Force-Position Hybrid Control of a New Parallel Hexapod Robot for Drilling Holes on Fuselage Surface

Abstract

In this paper, a new kind of 6-legged robot for drilling holes on the aircraft surface is presented. Each leg of the robot is a parallel mechanism with 3 degree of freedoms thus the robot includes totally 18 motors. Due to different work status, the control modes of these motors are also different and thus the force-position hybrid control method is applied. The kinematic and dynamic model is briefly introduced. Then the robot gait is discussed. After that hybrid control method is introduced: first the control mode of each motor should be determined, then the position or force control curves should be calculated. In the end of this paper, both virtual and real prototype of this robot is showed and the experiment result showed that the hybrid control method can significantly improve the robot performance.