Structural Design And Optimization Of A Serial Force-reflecting Device

A force-reflecting device is a system that gives force feedback to the operatorby mimicking the forces that would be present in the remote or virtual environment.A well-designed force-reflecting device has a broad application prospect in virtualreality and remote operating field. Based on a haptic master designed by ourresearch group, this dissertation aims at the design of a device that can be used insituations with medium or high operating speeds. The stiffness and inertia are thetwo main factors to be considered.Firstly, the prototype of the haptic master is introduced including its mechanicaland electrical components. The kinematic model is then established. Based on thekinematic model, the kinematic sizes of the new device are determined according tothe workspace and continuous exertable force requirements. Then the stiffness isanalyzed. Both the transmission and structural stiffness are modeled. After aquantitative analysis of the reflecting force accuracy, apparent mass is chosen as theindicator of the inertia. And apparent mass is calculated by energy methods based onthe simplified model. With link cross section set to be circular tubes, an optimizationis done to find link diameters and wall thicknesses with lowest apparent mass andgiven stiffness. At last, the structure of the capstan is optimized using topologyoptimization methods and the wrist is refined to be more compact. The new design isformed based on the results. The stiffness and apparent mass of the new device areanalyzed and the result turns to be good.