Development of an R-CUBE based general purpose haptic device system

Abstract

A novel 6-Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) hybrid haptic device is presented in this paper. Hybrid mechanism consists of parallel kinematic structure, R-CUBE and a 3-DoF orientation mechanism. In our previous study, the original configuration of the R-CUBE mechanism was investigated. In this work, the original design of R-CUBE is reconfigured as a haptic mechanism and the final mechanism is reoriented in order to equally distribute the gravitational effects to all grounded actuators. Rotational motions of the end-effector are monitored through the 3-DoF orientation mechanism placed on the moving platform of the parallel platform. The design of this haptic device is suitable to reflect forces in translational motions, thus point-type of contact is available for this system. The designed device is manufactured utilizing various types of manufacturing processes, such as wire erosion, laser cutting, milling and turning. Finally manufactured mechanism is integrated with electromechanical components and tested for manipulability.