REAL-TIME VALIDATION AND CONTROL ENVIRONMENT FOR PARALLEL ROBOT CONTROL DESIGN

Due to their high performance when executing high-speed and accurate tasks, parallel robots have became the focus of many researchers and companies. However; exploiting the frill potential of these robots requires a correct mechatronic design, in which the designed mechanism has to be controlled by a suitable control law in order to achieve the maximum performance. In this paper a novel Validation and Control Environment (VALIDBOT) is proposed as a support for the control design and experimental testing stages of these robots. The proposed open and flexible environment is designed to meet rapid prototyping requirements, offering a high level framework for both students and researchers. The capabilities of the environment are illustrated with an application case based on a 5R parallel robot prototype in which a modified CTC controller is tested.