Study of the effects of link tolerances to estimate mechanical errors in 3-RRS parallel manipulator

Abstract

This paper presents the mechanical error estimation under the effects of link tolerances in a 3-degree-of-freedom (DoF) 3-RRS Spatial Parallel Manipulator (SPM). Position level kinematic analysis and workspace analysis in the form of reachable and orientation workspace are carried out initially. Then, the effect of link tolerances on individual link is studied at the position of mid-point and orientation of the movable platform. The corresponding mechanical errors are estimated. The effect of link tolerance variation is studied to know the pattern of mechanical error. The 3-D CAD model in SolidWorks is used to validate the results. The conclusions are drawn that lead to error minimization at the tolerance design stage.