Design and Development of a Novel 3-DOF Parallel Robotic Polishing End-effector

This paper presents the design and analysis of a novel polishing robotic end-effector with 3-degree-of-freedom(3DOF) based on parallel decoupling flexure mechanism(PDFM). The PDFM provides a complaint contact environment between the polishing tool head and workpiece surface to cut down the impact and backlash. Besides, the deformation of the flexure hinges in PDFM is used to measure the contact force with the strain gauge. Based on the force feedback control, the polishing robot with the end-effector can obtain minimum surface roughness and better surface morphology. To describe the relationship between the contact force and deformation of the flexure hinges in PDFM, the pseudo rigid body model is employed. To evaluate the accuracy of the modeling result, the FEA simulation is carried out. The load capacity testing and modal simulation study are conducted to test the performance of end-effector.Note to Practitioners—The motivation of this work is to develop a 3-DOF strictly parallel polishing robot end-effector. A novel parallel-kinematic PDFM with strain gauge are developed. The end-effector owns the independent movement along three axes and large bear capacity. Analytical modeling and simulation study are carried out to validate the performance of the proposed design. Results demonstrate the fine decoupling property of the designed end-effector.