Design of a Novel 8-DOF Hexapod Based Motion Platform

Abstract

In motion simulation, motion platforms enable the simulation of forces and angular velocities acting, for example, on a person in a car or in an airplane. Other applications include perceptual research and testing the dynamic behavior of mechanical structures. This work presents a novel motion platform consisting of a Stewart platform with two additional rotational axes on top. A Stewart platform can perform highly dynamic movements, resulting in high forces and torques acting on objects mounted on it. The actuators of the two rotary axes must be sized in such a way that they provide sufficient drive torque for each movement of the Hexapod to prevent slippage. In order to select suitable drives, an optimization problem is formulated that generates trajectories in which the torque for the two additional axes is maximized. This method can also be used to determine load cases, which are used to perform a stress analysis of the entire structure on the Stewart platform using finite element simulation.