Mechatronic modeling of a parallel kinematics multi-axial simulation table based on decoupling the actuators and manipulator dynamics

Abstract In this work a mechatronic model was developed for a parallel Multi-Axial Simulation Table (MAST) mechanism. The dynamics of the mechanism was obtained using the principle of energy equivalence and Boltzmann–Hamel equations. In this way, the procedure to obtain the explicit dynamic equations is simplified and has the advantage of being systematic. Also, the actuators and the control were modeled and integrated to simulate and study the system’s positioning and torque. A remarkable contribution of this work is that the mechatronic model developed considers the mechanism as a disturbance to the actuators in a decoupled manner, allowing to easily evaluate alternative designs of whether the actuators, the mechanism or both. Additionally, the procedure taken has been validated with experimental data from an actual MAST prototype.