The Gantry-Tau parallel kinematic machine-kinematic and elastodynamic design optimisation

Pubished version of an article in the journal: Meccanica. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11012-010-9394-9One of the main advantages of the Gantry-Tau machine is a large accessible workspace/footprint ratio compared to many other parallel machines. The optimal kinematic, elastostatic and elastodynamic design parameters of the machine are still difficult to calculate and this paper introduces an optimisation scheme based on the geometric and functional dependencies to define the workspace and first resonance frequency. This method assumes that each link and universal joint can be described by a mass-spring-damper model and calculates the transfer function from a Cartesian force or torque to Cartesian position or orientation. The evolutionary algorithm based on the complex search method is compared to the gradient-based search function in Matlab integrated optimisation toolbox. Kinematic design obtained by optimisation according to this paper gives a 2D workspace/footprint ratio more than 1.66 and first resonance frequency is more than 50 Hz with components of an existing lab prototype at the University of Agder, Norway