Mathematical Analysis and Real-Time Control of a Novel 5-DOF Robotic System with a Parallel Kinematics Structure for Additive Manufacturing Technologies

Abstract

The systems that use parallel kinematic structures in additive manufacturing technology are particularly notable for their ability to provide exceptional precision and efficiency in the fabrication of intricate geometrically shaped items. This study introduces a novel system paradigm with five degrees of freedom, specifically developed to tackle existing additive manufacturing issues. In the proposed design, by incorporating rotational motions along the x and z axes, contributions were added to the efficiency of typical three-degrees-of-freedom (3-DOF) systems, resulting in a total of five degrees of freedom. In this way, it is aimed at increasing product durability, improving surface integrity, and saving production time. In this study, the conceptual design of the system was defined. Mathematical analyses were then used to determine the kinematic and dynamic models of the system, and a proposed model-based control technique was revealed. To evaluate the axis movement performance of the system, two different control techniques were used, and real-time test studies were conducted. The first control technique was the proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller, and the second method was the sliding mode control (SMC) method, which was used to increase the performance of the system during trajectory tracking. The experimental results showed that the SMC method provides a reasonably good trajectory tracking response and a steady-state error compared to the classical PID controller.