Study on piezoelectric actuators in vibration control of a planar parallel manipulator

This paper presents a new approach for the use of piezoelectric materials, PVDF and PZT, for vibration attenuation of a planar parallel manipulator. Since lightweight linkages of parallel manipulators deform under high acceleration/deceleration, such motion induced vibration would have to be damped quickly to reduce settling time of the platform position. An active damping controller is developed, which consists of a PD feedback control scheme, applied to linear actuators for rigid body motions, and a linear velocity feedback (L-type) scheme applied to either PVDF layer or PZT actuators for vibration attenuation. Simulation results show that piezoelectric materials yield good damping performance, resulting in precise manipulations of the planar parallel manipulator.