A Force-Controlled Parallel Robot for Large-Range Stiffness Rendering in Three Dimensions

A haptic device is used to transmit impedance to a human user to mimic the impedance of a virtual or real environment. Existing haptic devices use serial or parallel robots to deliver impedance in multiple dimensions. These robots usually have nonconstant Jacobian matrices that result in poor dynamic properties and low impedance stability limits in certain regions within the workspace. To account for these regions, the range of stiffness rendering is limited. This letter presents a three-degrees-of-freedom (DoFs) translational parallel robot with a constant Jacobian matrix in the entire workspace. The consistent dynamic parameters allow a large-range virtual stiffness to be rendered. To provide the accurate and large output force required for high-stiffness rendering, series elastic actuators (SEAs) are used as the input for the parallel robot. SEAs can be used to minimize the geartrain friction and effective inertia to control the output force and impedance more accurately. Design, modeling, and three-dimensional impedance control of the haptic device are presented in this work. Multi-dimensional impedance and virtual-wall control experiments are illustrated to demonstrate the accuracy and rendering range of the haptic device. Since the stable range of virtual stiffness is much larger than existing ones, it is expected that this novel device can be used to render accurate stiffness for both soft and stiff environments.