Clearance effected accuracy and error sensitivity analysis: A new nonlinear equivalent method for spatial parallel robot

Most mechanism contains one or more joints. However, joint clearances which cannot be dislodged make accuracy analysis become complicated. In order to seek a method to investigate the impact of joint clearances on the accuracy of a parallel robot, this paper deals with the 3-SPS-1-S spatial parallel robot’s pose error predicting and sensitivity analyzing. In this paper, a nonlinear method for evaluating the sources of the pose errors is proposed on the condition that the pose errors only come from joint clearances. Firstly, based on the nonlinear contact modes inside the joints, the error equivalent method is outlined for spherical joint and sliding pair. Then the pose error distribution over its workspace is presented. Secondly, those areas where the pose errors present abnormally changing are analyzed. Thirdly, sensitivity models are defined to evaluate how much the external variable load affects the pose errors. Finally, the simulation results, which are consistent with the structural characteristics of the 3-SPS-1-S spatial parallel robot, proved the validity of the equivalent method proposed in this paper.