Kinematics characteristics analysis of a 3-UPS/S parallel airborne stabilized platform

Abstract

In this paper, a kind of parallel airborne stabilized platform (ASP) is designed based on a 3-UPS/S mechanism, and a forward kinematics (FK) method named Finite-Step-Integration (FSI) is proposed, which can determine the pose of the moving platform and the consecutive kinematic responses without any sensor. In order to quantify and evaluate the precision of the FSI method, the error model is established between the computational and the real results. Meanwhile, the operation time is recorded during the precision test to reflect the FSI method's speed. To apply the method more widely, the mechanical restraint and accessible workspace are analyzed. An actual prototype was designed and fabricated to illustrate the effect of motion tracking on the FSI method. The outcomes presented in the research allow to observe that: the FSI method possesses excellent arithmetic accuracy and speed for consecutive FK analysis, the sufficiency of the ASP's workspace is proved with the application of the method, and the FSI method is accurate and timely on the motion tracking. The FSI method proposed in this paper can be well applied to the kinematics characteristics analysis of general parallel mechanisms.