Trajectory control of robot manipulators with closed-kinematic chain mechanism

The authors consider the problem of Cartesian trajectory control of a closed kinematic-chain-mechanism robot manipulator, recently built to study the assembly of NASA hardware for the future space station. The study is performed by computer simulation and experimentation for tracking of three different paths: a straight line, a sinusoid and a circle. Linearization and pole placement methods are used to design controller gains. Results show that the controllers are robust and there are good agreements between simulation and experimentation. They also show excellent tracking quality and small overshoots.<>