Abstract
This paper describes a small range six-axis accelerometer (the measurement range of the sensor is ±g) with high sensitivity DCB (Double Cantilever Beam) elastic element. This sensor is developed based on a parallel mechanism because of the reliability. The accuracy of sensors is affected by its sensitivity characteristics. To improve the sensitivity, a DCB structure is applied as the elastic element. Through dynamic analysis, the dynamic model of the accelerometer is established using the Lagrange equation, and the mass matrix and stiffness matrix are obtained by a partial derivative calculation and a conservative congruence transformation, respectively. By simplifying the structure of the accelerometer, a model of the free vibration is achieved, and the parameters of the sensor are designed based on the model. Through stiffness analysis of the DCB structure, the deflection curve of the beam is calculated. Compared with the result obtained using a finite element analysis simulation in ANSYS Workbench, the coincidence rate of the maximum deflection is 89.0% along the x-axis, 88.3% along the y-axis and 87.5% along the z-axis. Through strain analysis of the DCB elastic element, the sensitivity of the beam is obtained. According to the experimental result, the accuracy of the theoretical analysis is found to be 90.4% along the x-axis, 74.9% along the y-axis and 78.9% along the z-axis. The measurement errors of linear accelerations ax, ay and az in the experiments are 2.6%, 0.6% and 1.31%, respectively. The experiments prove that accelerometer with DCB elastic element performs great sensitive and precision characteristics.
Highlights
Due to significant advantages in terms of stiffness, payload and precision, a parallel mechanism is generally applied in the design of six-axis accelerometers [1,2,3,4]
Because of the good 6-DOF characteristic of steward platform and the good elastic characteristic of the Double cantilever beam (DCB) structure, this paper comprehensively investigates a novel six-axis accelerometer combined with the steward platform and DCB structure
A theoretical model of a six-axis accelerometer with a DCB elastic element is presented based on a parallel mechanism
Summary
Due to significant advantages in terms of stiffness, payload and precision, a parallel mechanism is generally applied in the design of six-axis accelerometers [1,2,3,4]. Six-axis accelerometers have been widely used for applications such as head impact sensors [5] and structural health monitoring [6]. The Gough–Stewart platform is a typical parallel mechanism in the field of sensors [8,9,10,11,12], and this platform was adopted as a six-dimensional force/torque sensor by Kerr in early research [13]. Seibold et al designed a six-dimensional force sensor with elastic joints for minimally invasive surgery [16], and Nicholas developed a sensor for biomechanical measurement [17]
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