Difference between the ideal and combined spherical joints and its effects on parallel manipulators

When using parallel manipulators as machine tools, the spherical joint has been widely used and replaced by a combination of a universal joint and a rotating unit, but the introduced differences and effects have not been studied in detail. In this paper, an approach to establish the mathematical models of the ideal and combined spherical joints is presented, and the differences between the two spherical joints are given from the perspective of constraints, workspace, clearance, and contact deformation. First, the non-interference workspace of a class universal joint is investigated by using a simple and clear projection method, where the constraint domain and workspace of two spherical joints are proposed. Next, the approximate clearance models of these two spherical joints are analyzed, and the corresponding contact deformation models are also given based on the Hertzian Contact theory. Finally, a 1PU + 3UPS parallel manipulator is used to verify the discrepant effects of two spherical joints on parallel manipulators. If the combined spherical joint is used, the results indicate that the improvement in the workspace is significant, but the drop in stiffness is also evident. Thus, this paper provides a theoretical basis for researchers to use combined spherical joints.

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