Experimental and Numerical Characterization of CaPaMan 2bis Operation

Abstract

In this paper, the operation performance of CaPaMan 2bis (Cassino Parallel Manipulator 2 bis) was investigated through lab experimental tests and computer simulations. Milli?CaTraSys (Milli?Cassino Tracking System) was implemented to determine displacements and orientation variations of CaPaMan 2bis end?effector during experimental tests. A 3D (three dimension) virtual model was built in ADAMS environment to simulate the operation behavior for different prescribed motions. Several prescribed motions have been simulated and tested under different conditions in order to characterize the system behavior. In particular, the kinematic characteristics were obtained from both, experimental tests and numerical simulations. Finally, experiment results and simulation computations were compared for purpose of performance evaluation and design characterization of the parallel manipulator structure and its prototype.