6 Degree-of-Freedom Robot Platform
Project Overview
The Stewart Platform (or hexapod) is a 6 degree of freedom robot platform with various practical uses. In this implementation we are looking for a high torque, high speed and high duty cycle platform of compact size.
Implementation
ClearPath SC Servo motors
The design is based on rotary servo motors from ClearPath, rather than linear actuators. This enables a more portable and compact system to be built at lower cost. There is also the potential for movements of the system to be learned by using the encoders of the motors to learn position.
Learn mode
Learn mode is a way of recording motions to be later repeated or played back, through the Stewart platform. The motors can be configured to run with low or no resistive torque at the motor. Motions are then manually applied to the balanced Stewart platform, which will move the armaments directly. The motor encoders can them resolve new encoder position data as a time-series across all 6 motors. The motion can then be saved to disk for later playback, faithfully reproducing the learned motion.
Notes
- Compact design requires a minimum of space
- Torque limits can be set electronically
- Range of motion limits are constrained by the actuator arm kinematics
- High torque motors enable high duty cycle of the robot platform
- Able to powered off a common power rail for all 6 motors
- computational control by dedicated C++ program running on Raspberry Pi
