Tags
Stewart Platforms, Vibration Isolation
Reference
(Spanos {\it et al.}, 1995)
Author(s)
Spanos, J., Rahman, Z., & Blackwood, G.
Year
1995

Stewart Platform (Figure 1):

  • Voice Coil
  • Flexible joints (cross-blades)
  • Force Sensors
  • Cubic Configuration

Figure 1: Stewart Platform

Figure 1: Stewart Platform

Total mass of the paylaod: 30kg Center of gravity is 9cm above the geometry center of the mount (cube’s center?).

Limitation of the Decentralized Force Feedback:

  • high frequency pole due to internal resonances of the struts
  • low frequency zero due to the rotational stiffness of the flexible joints

After redesign of the struts:

  • high frequency pole at 4.7kHz
  • low frequency zero at 2.6Hz but non-minimum phase (not explained). Small viscous damping material in the cross blade flexures made the zero minimum phase again.

Figure 2: Experimentally measured transfer function from voice coil drive voltage to collocated load cell output voltage

Figure 2: Experimentally measured transfer function from voice coil drive voltage to collocated load cell output voltage

The controller used consisted of:

  • second order low pass filter to gain stabilize the plant at high frequencies and provide steep roll-off
  • first order lead filter to provide adequate phase margin at the high frequency crossover
  • first order lag filter to provide adequate phase margin at the low frequency crossover
  • a first order high pass filter to attenuate the excess gain resulting from the low frequency zero

The results in terms of transmissibility are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Experimentally measured Frobenius norm of the 6-axis transmissibility

Figure 3: Experimentally measured Frobenius norm of the 6-axis transmissibility

Bibliography

Spanos, J., Rahman, Z., & Blackwood, G., A soft 6-axis active vibration isolator, In , Proceedings of 1995 American Control Conference - ACC'95 (pp. ) (1995). : .