Gravity compensation of a 6-UPS parallel kinematics machine tool through elastically balanced constant-force generators

Abstract

Gravity compensation is a viable strategy to improve the performance of manipulators, particularly in terms of power consumption. This work studies the static balancing of a prototypal 5-axis parallel kinematics machine tool with UPS-legs. Exact gravity compensation is achieved by turning the legs into constant-force generators, through tension springs. A numerical multibody model is implemented and simulated within a commercial software environment (MSC Adams™) to assess the effectiveness of the proposed balancing strategy.

Keywords

• static balancing
• gravity compensation
• elastic compensation
• constant-force generator
• parallel kinematics machine
• 5-axis machine tool