Development of Chinese large-scale space end-effector

In order to achieve large tolerance capture and high stiffness connection for space payload operations,a Chinese large-scale space end-effector (EER) was developed.Three flexible steel cables were adopted to capture the payload with large capture allowance.Ball screw transmission mechanism and plane shape-constraint four bar linkage mechanism were utilized to connect the payload with high stiffness.The experiments show that capture tolerances in X,Y,Z,Pitch,Yaw,Roll directions are 100 mm,100 mm,120 mm,10.5°,10.5°,12°,respectively.The maximum connection stiffness is 4 800 N·m.The end-effector could meet the requirements for space large tolerance capture and high stiffness connection in the future.

Design and Analysis of a Novel 2T2R Parallel Mechanism with the Closed-loop Limbs

This paper presents a novel four degrees of freedom(DOF) parallel mechanism with the closed-loop limbs, which includes two translational(2 T) DOF and two rotational(2 R) DOF. By connecting the proposed parallel mechanism with the guide rail in series,the 5-DOF hybrid robot system is obtained, which can be applied for the composite material tape laying in aerospace industry. The analysis in this paper mainly focuses on the parallel module of the hybrid robot system. First, the freedom of the proposed parallel mechanism is calculated based on the screw theory. Then, according to the closed-loop vector equation, the inverse kinematics and Jacobian matrix of the parallel mechanism are carried out. Next, the workspace stiffness and dexterity analysis of the parallel mechanism are investigated based on the constraint equations, static stiffness matrix and Jacobian condition number. Finally, the correctness of the inverse kinematics and the high stiffness of the parallel mechanism are verified by the kinematics and stiffness simulation analysis, which lays a foundation for the automatic composite material tape laying.