Zeroing dynamics based motion control scheme for parallel manipulators

Zeroing dynamics (ZD), as a powerful method proposed for time-varying problems solving, has found successful applications in motion control of serial manipulators. Compared with serial manipulators, parallel manipulators possess some attractive advantages such as high carrying capacity and high operation accuracy. However, the inherent differences between parallel and serial manipulators set great difficulties on the applications of ZD to the control of parallel manipulators. Making progress along this direction, the first ZD based motion controller of parallel manipulators is proposed and the design procedure of the ZD based scheme is presented. As a typical application, the proposed scheme is utilised to control a Stewart platform for tracking a quatrefoil-shaped path, which illustrates the effectiveness of the ZD based scheme.