Design, analysis and fabrication of a multidimensional acceleration sensor based on fully decoupled compliant parallel mechanism

Parallel mechanism has become an alternative solution when designing the mechanical component of physical sensors. Previous work was focused on the six degree-of-freedom (DOF) force/torque sensor with the aid of the traditional Gough-Stewart platform. In this paper, a multidimensional acceleration sensor is proposed for kinetic information acquisition through the novel architecture of a 3RRPRR fully decoupling parallel mechanism. The translational elements of three perpendicular legs are served as elastic bodies which are manufactured by aluminum alloy. The structural evolution and mechanism kinematics is first introduced, followed by the modeling of performance atlas including isotropy and sensitivity. Compliance comparison between multi-spring model and finite-element analysis is conducted. The prototype is fabricated for deep investigation on the actual performances. A self-developed calibration platform is utilized for the static calibration to verify its sensitivity and linearity. Consequently, two trial experiments for measuring human motions are implemented to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the parallel-legged accelerometer. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.