Parallel Manipulation Based on Stick-Slip Motion of Vibrating Platform

Abstract

The majority of the industrial material handling mechanisms used in the manipulation or assembly of mesoscale objects are slow and require precision programming and tooling, mainly because they are based on sequential robotic pick-n-place operations. This paper presents problem formation, modeling, and analysis of a sensorless parallel manipulation technique for mimicking real-systems that transfer mesoscale objects based on the vibration of inline-feeder machines. Unlike common stick-slip models that utilize a “mass-on-moving-belt” and avoid totality of the motion, the research obtains differential equations in order to describe the combined physics of stick-slip dynamics of an object traveling along an oscillating platform under smooth and dry friction conditions. The nonlinear dynamics are solved numerically to explain the effect of system parameters on the stick-slip motion. The research provides empirical models based on frequency-analysis identification to describe the total linear speed of an object to an input force. The results are illustrated and tested by time–response, phase plots, and amplitude response diagrams, which compare very favorably with results obtained by numerical simulation of the equation of motion, and this suggests that the vibration of the platform is independent of stick-slip motion when the mass of the object being transported is small relative to the mass of the system.