A 3-2-1 KINEMATIC CONFIGURATION OF A STEWART PLATFORM AND ITS APPLICATION TO 6 DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM POSE MEASUREMENTS

This paper outlines a simple yet accurate approach to measuring the six degree of freedom position and orientation of a robot end-effector. The mechanism, which will be far less costly than currently available devices, can be used to make both static and dynamic measurements for robot calibration as well as real-time endpoint control. The kinematics of the approach stem from a configuration of the Stewart platform. A ''3-2-1'' kinematic configuration is proposed which results in a closed-form forward kinematic solution for the Stewart platform. The closed-form algorithm can be computed about 100 times faster than conventional iterative algorithms. A prototype system using six string encoders was built and tested. Issues on error compensation were also studied. The presented approach should be useful for a broad range of applications other than robot metrology where convenient, low-cost, six degree of freedom static and/or dynamic pose measurements are required or preferred.