Structural Vibration Modeling and Dynamic Stiffness - Mahmoodi Masih - 2014 - PHD Thesis

STRUCTURAL DYNAMIC MODELING, DYNAMIC
STIFFNESS, AND ACTIVE VIBRATION CONTROL OF

PARALLEL KINEMATIC MECHANISMS WITH
FLEXIBLE LINKAGES
By: Masih Mahmoodi
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
University of Toronto
Copyright 2014 by Masih Mahmoodi
Structural Dynamic Modeling, Dynamic Stiffness, and Active Vibration

Control of Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms with Flexible Linkages
Masih Mahmoodi
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
University of Toronto
2014
ABSTRACT
This thesis is concerned with modeling of structural dynamics, dynamic stiffness, and
active control of unwanted vibrations in Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms (PKMs) as a
result of flexibility of the PKM linkages.
Using energy-based approaches, the structural dynamics of the PKMs with flexible links
is derived. Subsequently, a new set of admissible shape functions is proposed for the
flexible links that incorporate the dynamic effects of the adjacent structural components.
The resulting mode frequencies obtained from the proposed shape functions are
compared with the resonance frequencies of the entire PKM obtained via Finite Element
(FE) analysis for a set of moving platform/payload masses. Next, an FE-based
methodology is presented for the estimation of the configuration-dependent dynamic
stiffness of the redundant 6-dof PKMs utilized as 5-axis CNC machine tools at the Tool
Center Point (TCP). The proposed FE model is validated via experimental modal tests
conducted on two PKM-based meso-Milling Machine Tool (mMT) prototypes built in the
CIMLab.
For active vibration control of the PKM linkages, a set of PZT transducers are designed,
and bonded to the flexible linkage of the PKM to form a smart link. An
electromechanical model is developed that takes into account the effects of the added
mass and stiffness of the PZT transducers to those of the PKM links. The
ii
electromechanical model is subsequently utilized in a controllability analysis where it is

shown that the desired controllability of PKMs can be simply achieved by adjusting the
mass of the moving platform. Finally, a new vibration controller based on a modified
Integral Resonant Control (IRC) scheme is designed and synthesized with the smart link
model. Knowing that the structural dynamics of the PKM link undergoes configurationdependent variations within the workspace, the controller must be robust with respect to
the plant uncertainties. To this end, the modified IRC approach is shown via a
Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) methodology to have improved robustness against
plant variations while maintaining its vibration attenuation capability. Using LabVIEW
Real-Time module, the active vibration control system is experimentally implemented on
the smart link of the PKM to verify the proposed vibration control methodology.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my supervisors,

Professor James K. Mills and Professor Beno Benhabib for their inspiring guidance, and
encouragement, throughout my thesis program. Through their support and advice, I have
been able to see this program through to its completion.
Also, I would like to thank my colleagues and friends in the Laboratory for Nonlinear
Systems Control and the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory (CIMLab) for
their assistance. Specially, I would like to thank Dr. Issam M. Bahadur, Mr. Adam Le,
and Mr. Ray Zhao for providing me with invaluable insights and comments in my
research work.
I would also like to acknowledge the Natural Science and Engineering Research
Council of Canada (NSERC)-Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in
Machining Technology (CANRIMT) for financial support of my research project.
Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents and my sister for
their endless support, and patience. Undoubtedly, the constant encouragement and moral
support from my family has helped me become the person I am today.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS......v
LIST OF TABLES........ix
LIST OF FIGURES.......x
LIST OF NOMENCLATURES....xiv
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
1.1
Thesis Motivation ................................................................................................. 1
1.2
Literature Review ................................................................................................. 2

1.2.1
Structural Dynamics of PKMs with Flexible Links ...................................... 2
1.2.2
Dynamic Stiffness of Redundant PKM-Based Machine Tools .................... 5
1.2.3
Electromechanical Modeling and Controllability of Piezoelectrically
Actuated Links of PKMs ............................................................................................. 7

1.2.4
Active Vibration Control of PKMs with Flexible Links ............................ 10
1.3
Thesis Objectives ............................................................................................... 12
1.4
Thesis Contributions .......................................................................................... 13
1.5
Thesis Outline .................................................................................................... 15
2 Vibration Modeling of PKMs with Flexible Links: Admissible Shape Functions ...... 17
2.1
Dynamics of the PKM with Elastic Links .......................................................... 17

2.1.1
Modeling of the Elastic Linkages ............................................................... 18
2.1.2
Dynamics of PKM Actuators, Moving Platform, and Spindle/Tool .......... 25
2.2
2.1.3
System Dynamic Modeling of the Overall PKM ........................................ 26
2.1.4
Admissible Shape Functions ....................................................................... 30
Numerical Simulations ....................................................................................... 33

2.2.1
Architecture of the PKM-Based mMT ....................................................... 34
2.2.2
The Accuracy of Admissible Shape Functions as a Function of Mass Ratio
of the Platform/Spindle to Those of the Links .......................................................... 37

2.2.3
2.3
Structural Vibration Response of the Entire PKM-Based mMT ................ 39
Summary ............................................................................................................ 45
3 Dynamic Stiffness of Redundant PKM-Based Machine Tools ................................... 47

3.1
Dynamic Stiffness Definition ............................................................................. 48
3.2
Dynamic Stiffness Estimation ............................................................................ 50
3.3
3.4
3.2.1
Architecture of the Prototype PKMs........................................................... 50
3.2.2
FE-based Calculation of the Dynamic Stiffness ......................................... 51
3.2.3
Experimental Verification of the FE-Based Model .................................... 53
Results and Discussions ..................................................................................... 55

3.3.1
Prototype II and Prototype III ..................................................................... 55
3.3.2
Comparative Analysis of PKM Architectures ............................................ 62
3.3.3
Redundancy................................................................................................. 64
Summary ............................................................................................................ 66
4 Electromechanical Modeling and Controllability of PZT Transducers for PKM Links .

................................................................................................................................... 67
4.1
Electromechanical Modeling.............................................................................. 68
4.1.1
Stepped Beam Model .................................................................................. 68
4.1.2
PZT Actuator Constitutive Equations ......................................................... 72
vi
4.1.3
PZT Sensor Constitutive Equations ............................................................ 73
4.1.4
System Modeling of the Combined Beam and PZT Transducers............... 74
4.2
Controllability .................................................................................................... 75
4.3
Numerical Simulations and Experimental Validation ........................................ 77

4.3.1
Stepped Beam Model Verification.............................................................. 79
4.3.2
Controllability Analysis as a Function of the Tip Mass ............................. 83
4.4
5
Summary ............................................................................................................ 86
Design, Synthesis and Implementation of a Control System for Active Vibration
Suppression of PKMs with Flexible Links ....................................................................... 88

5.1
System Model ..................................................................................................... 88
5.2
Controller Design ............................................................................................... 90
5.3
5.2.1
Overview of the Standard Integral Resonant Control (IRC) ...................... 91
5.2.2
Resonance-Shifted IRC ............................................................................... 92
5.2.3
Proposed Modified IRC .............................................................................. 93
Utilization of the IRC-Based Control Schemes in Quantitative Feedback Theory
(QFT)
5.4
............................................................................................................................ 94
5.3.1
Robust Stability........................................................................................... 95
5.3.2
Vibration Attenuation ................................................................................. 97
Results and Discussions ..................................................................................... 97

5.4.1
Proof-of-Concept ........................................................................................ 97
5.4.2
Application of the Proposed IRC-Scheme to Vibration Suppression of the
PKM with Flexible Links ........................................................................................ 105

5.5
6
Summary .......................................................................................................... 110

Conclusions and Future Work ................................................................................. 112
vii
6.1.
Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 112
6.2.
Future Work ..................................................................................................... 115
References ....................................................................................................................... 119

Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 138
Appendix B ..................................................................................................................... 139
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1.
Dimensions of structural components.............................................................. 36
Table 2.2.
Physical parameters of the PKM structure ...................................................... 36
Table 2.3.
Summary of the recommended shape functions for the PKM links with respect
to the mass ratioerror defined by Equation (2.45)
.................................................. 40
Table 2.4.
Shape functions used for comparison in the simulation set 1. ......................... 41
Table 2.5.
Shape functions used for comparison in the simulation set 2. ......................... 43
Table 3.1.
Joint space configurations chosen for prototype II .......................................... 54
Table 3.2.
Joint space configurations chosen for prototype III......................................... 55
Table 3.3.
Mode frequencies corresponding to the peal amplitude FRFs of prototype II 56
Table 4.1.
Dimensions of the beam and PZT transducer. ................................................. 78
Table 4.2.
Materials of the beam and PZT transducer. ..................................................... 79
Table 5.1.
Variation ranges for the beam resonance frequencies and modal residues. .... 98
Table 5.2.
Four configurations selected for vibration control experiments. ................... 107
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1.
Schematic of a general PKM with kinematic notations ................................. 18
Figure 2.2.
Mechanical structure of the example PKM-based mMT ............................... 33
Figure 2.3.
Schematic of the PKM-based mMT ............................................................... 33
Figure 2.4.
Elastic displacement component of the linkage for in-plane.......................... 35
Figure 2.5.
Elastic displacement component of the linkage for out-of-plane ................... 35
Figure 2.6.
Reaction forces at the spherical joints of the moving platform ...................... 35
Figure 2.7.
Out-of-plane natural frequencies of the PKM links for the first mode .......... 38
Figure 2.8.
Out-of-plane natural frequencies of the PKM links for the second mode ...... 38
Figure 2.9.
In-plane natural frequencies of the PKM links for the first mode .................. 39
Figure 2.10.
In-plane natural frequencies of the PKM links for the second mode ........... 39
Figure 2.11.
Tooltip time response for 1st fixed-mass and 1st fixed-free shape
functions for the first out-of-plane mode at
........................................... 42
Figure 2.12.
Tooltip time response for 1st fixed-mass and 1st fixed-free shape
functions for the first out-of-plane mode at
................................................ 43
Figure 2.13.
Tooltip time response for 2nd fixed-mass and 1st fixed-pinned shape
functions for the second out-of-plane mode at
. ..................................... 43
Figure 2.14.
Tooltip time response for 1st and 2nd pinned-mass and 1st and 2nd
pinned-pinned shape functions for the first and second in-plane modes at
. ....................................................................................................................... 44
Figure 2.15.
................................................................................................................................... 44
x
Figure 2.16.
. ....................................................................................................................... 45
Figure 3.1.
Schematic of a generic PKM .......................................................................... 48
Figure 3.2.
FRF amplitudes of a PKM for two example configurations .......................... 50
Figure 3.3.
Prototype II ..................................................................................................... 52
Figure 3.4.
Prototype III.................................................................................................... 52
Figure 3.5.
Architecture of PKM prototype II .................................................................. 52
Figure 3.6.
Architecture of PKM prototype III ................................................................. 52
Figure 3.7.
Set-up of the experimental modal analysis ..................................................... 53
Figure 3.8.
FRFxx amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b)
configuration AA, (c) configuration BB, and (d) configuration CC......................... 56
Figure 3.9.
FRFxy amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b)
Figure 3.10.
FRFxz amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b)

Figure 3.11.Mode
shapes of prototype II at the dominant frequencies for (a) configuration

Home, (b) configuration AA, (c) configuration BB, and (d) configuration CC ....... 58
Figure 3.12.
FRFxx amplitudes of prototype III for (a) configuration Home, (b)

Figure 3.13.
FRFxx amplitudes of prototype III for 8 random configurations................... 59

Figure 3.14.
FRFzz amplitudes of prototype III for 8 random configurations ................... 60

Figure 3.15.
Mode shapes of prototype III at configuation Home for (a) 1st mode at 85 Hz,
and (b) 2nd mode at 157 Hz ....................................................................................... 60
xi
Figure 3.16.
Variation of FRF peak amplitudes for 8 configurations using (a) original,

and (b) simplified FE model ..................................................................................... 61
Figure 3.17.
Compared 6-dof PKMs (a) the Eclipse PKM, (b) the Alizade PKM, (c) the
Glozman PKM, and (d) the proposed PKM.............................................................. 62
Figure 3.18.
FRF for all PKMs along the (a) xx, (b) yy, and, (c) zz directions ................. 63
Figure 3.19.
Three redundant configurations for a given platform pose. ......................... 65

Figure 3.20.
FRFxx of three redundant configurations for a given platform pose............. 65

Figure 4.1.
Schematic of the beam and the PZT actuator pairs ........................................ 69
Figure 4.2.
Euler-Bernoulli beam model for 2N+1 jumped discontinuities. .................... 69
Figure 4.3.
PZT transducer configuration of the smart link ............................................. 78
Figure 4.4.
FRFs of the PZT transducer pair obtained from experiments, uniform model,
and stepped beam mode for (a) 1st pair, (b) 2nd pair, and (c) 3rd pair ........................ 80
Figure 4.5.
First three mode shapes of the beam with PZT transducer pairs: (a) 1st mode,
(b) 2nd mode, and (c) 3rd mode .................................................................................. 82
Figure 4.6.
First three modal strain distributions along the beam with PZT transducer
pairs: (a) 1st mode, (b) 2nd mode, and (c) 3rd mode ................................................... 83
Figure 4.7.
Variation of the mode shapes as a function of the tip mass for (a) 1st mode, (b)
2nd mode, and (c) 3rd mode ........................................................................................ 85
Figure 4.8.
Variation of the controllability indices of the individual PZT pairs based on
(a) state controllability (b) output controllability...................................................... 86
Figure 5.1.
( a) IRC scheme proposed in [81], and (b) its equivalent representation. ....... 91
Figure 5.2.
Resonance-shifted IRC scheme in [84]. ......................................................... 92
Figure 5.3.
Proposed modified IRC scheme ..................................................................... 93
Figure 5.4.
Equivalent representation of the proposed modified IRC scheme ................. 94
Figure 5.5.
Open-loop FRFs for variable tip mass............................................................ 98
xii
Figure 5.6.
closed-loop FRFs of the proof-of-concept for 1X for (a) strandard IRC, (b)
resonance-shifted IRC, and (c) proposed modified IRC schemes .......................... 100
Figure 5.7.
FRF magnitudes of the proof-of-concept for open-loop and with (a) standard
IRC, (b) resonance-shifted IRC, and (c) proposed IRC. ......................................... 102
Figure 5.8.
Plant template in the QFT design environment. ........................................... 103
Figure 5.9.
QFT robust stability of the compared control schemes. ............................... 104
Figure 5.10.
QFT disturbance attenuation of the compared control schemes. ............... 105

Figure 5.11.
PZT transducers bonded on flexible link of a PKM. .................................. 106

Figure 5.12.
Diagram of the active vibration control system. ........................................ 107

Figure 5.13.
Open-loop FRF pf the PKM link for four example configurations. ........... 108
Figure 5.14.
FRF of the flexible PKM link with and without controller for (a)
configuation AA, (b) configuation BB, (c) configuration CC, and (d) configuration
Home. ...................................................................................................................... 109
Figure 5.15.
Time-response of the PKM link for configuration Home. ......................... 110
xiii
LIST OF NOMENCLATURES
Latin Symbols
system matrix of the smart link in state-space representation
coefficient of the in-plane shape function of the PKM link
location of the jth PZT sensor pair along the smart link
coefficient of the out-of-plane shape function of the PKM link
rth mode modal residue of the plant transfer function
maximum rth mode modal residue of the plant transfer function
minimum rth mode modal residue of the plant transfer function
input matrix of the smart link in state-space representation
b
width of the beam and the PZT transducers

output matrix of the smart link in state-space representation
equivalent damping matrix of the PKM at the TCP
modal damping matrix of the PKM smart links
capacitance of the PZT sensor
(
modal matrix of Coriolis and centrifugal effects of the PKM links

matrix of the Coriolis and centrifugal forces of the actuators,
xiv
moving platform, and spindle/tool

( )
( )
transfer function of the compensator

equivalent transfer function of the compensator
constant feed-through term
disturbance input signal
transverse piezoelectric strain constant
vertical position of the prismatic actuator column of prototype II
vertical position of the linear prismatic joints for ith chain of the
PKM
linear position of the radial actuators of prototype III
Youngs modulus
{ }
moving frame attached at the platform center point
flexural rigidity of the ith segment of the smart link

Young's modulus of the PZT transducers
dynamicapplied force vector at the TCP
modal coupling force vector of the PKM
vector of active joint forces
vector of passive joint forces
vector of gravity and Coriolis/centrifugal forces of active joints
xv
vector of gravity and Coriolis/centrifugal forces of passive joints

modal electromechanical coefficients matrix of the PZT actuator
vector of generalized modal external forces applied on the PKM
links
vector of generalized forces other than external actuator/platform,
spindle/tool forces
(.)
(.)
unknown functions of the reaction forces at the distal end of the

PKM links for in-plane motion
unknown functions of the reaction forces at the distal end of the
PKM links for out-of-plane motion
natural frequencies corresponding to a selected shape function
natural frequencies corresponding to the realistic mode shapes of
the PKM links
( )
transfer function of the smart link with variable tip mass
( )
modified transfer function of the smart link with variable tip mass
gravitational acceleration
vector of gravity forces of the actuators, moving platform, and
spindle/tool
vector of modal gravity forces of the PKM links
GM
()
( )
gain margin
Heaviside function
equivalent transfer function of the plant in the resonance-shifted
xvi
IRC scheme
( )
equivalent transfer function of the plant in the proposed IRC

scheme
kinematic constraints of the ith closed-loop chains
and
identity matrices
in-plane area moment of inertia of the PKM links
out-of-plane area moment of inertia of the PKM links
imaginary operator
Jacobian matrix of the entire PKM
matrix of the derivative of kinematic constrains with respect to
active joints
transformation matrix from the joint velocities of the ith PKM
chain to Cartesian velocity of an arbitrary point
in-plane component of the mass moment of inertia of the effective
portion of the platform and spindle/tool
out-of-plane component of the mass moment of inertia of the
effective portion of the platform and spindle/tool
matrix of the derivative of kinematic constrains with respect to
passive joints
partitioned stiffness matrix of the PKM for active joint, and modal
coordinates
xvii
PZT actuator coefficient for the jth PZT transducer pair

dynamic stiffness matrix of the PKM at the TCP
modal stiffness matrix of the PKM with smart links
modal stiffness matrix of the PKM links
generalized modal stiffness matrix of the entire PKM
PZT sensor coefficient for the jth PZT transducer pair
static stiffness matrix of the PKM at the TCP
integral compensator gain
feed-forward/feedback compensator gain
PKM link length

(
loop gain for kth control scheme

length of the tool
number of the closed kinematic chains in the PKM

and
position of the discontinuity of the ith segment with respect to link

origin
structural mass matrix of the PKM at the TCP
total mass of the moving platform and spindle/tool
bending moment created by the jth PZT actuator pair
inertia matrix of the PKM partitioned for active joint/modal
coordinates
xviii
inertia matrix of the ith sub-chain actuator

in-plane component of the bending moment at the distal end of the
ith link
upper bound on the robust stability of the closed-loop system
out-of-plane component of the bending moment at the distal end
of the ith link
modal mass matrix of the PKM with smart link
inertia matrix of the moving platform
modal inertia matrix of the PKM links
inertia matrix of the actuators, moving platform, and spindle/tool
generalized modal mass/inertia matrix of the entire PKM
inertia matrix of the spindle/tool
mass of each link
mass of each actuator
mass per unit length of the ith segment of the smart link
mass of the moving platform
mass of the spindle/tool
n
number of serial sub-chains in a generic PKM

number of truncated modes of the smart link
number of jump discontinuities in the smart link

xix
{O}
inertial frame
pole of the compensator
PM
phase margin
reaction force vector acting on the ith link at
reaction force vector acting on the ith link at
peak amplitude of the FRF for configuration AA
peak amplitude of the FRF for configuration BB
state controllability index
output controllability index
number of PZT transducer pairs

vector of the complete set of generalized coordinates of the PKM
structure
( )
joint-space position vector of the actuated joints of the ith chain

vertical component of the ith actuator position vector
( )
mth modal coordinate

vector of modal coordinates for the ith link
vector of modal coordinates for all n sub-chains
vector of the generalized coordinates of the PKM with smart link
( )
joint-space position vector of the passive joints of the ith chain
xx
vector of the rigid-body motion coordinates of the entire n subchains

vector of all dependent rigid coordinates
vector of total generalized coordinates of the PKM
initial joint-space configuration vector
initial modal coordinates vector
( )
rth modal coordinate of the smart link

ratio of the effective mass of the moving platform and spindle to
the mass of the link
absolute Cartesian position vector of an arbitrary point on PKM
link
Number of truncated modes
vertical component of the position vector
radius of the circular base platform
( )
reference input signal

radius of the moving platform
Laplace transform variable
( )
distribution function of the input voltage over the jth PZT actuator
pair
transformation matrix from the passive joint velocities to active
joint velocities
xxi
closed loop transfer function of unity-feedback system from

reference input to plant output for kth control scheme
transformation matrix from the modal velocities to the elastic
displacements at point
the total kinetic energy of the PKM links
total kinetic energy of the actuators, the moving platform, and the
spindle/tool
time
beam thickness
PZT transducer thickness
the total kinetic energy of the PKM links
vector of input PZT actuator voltage
( )
input signal to the open-loop plant

input voltage to the jth PZT actuator pair
in-plane component of the shear force for the ith link
out-of-plane component of the shear force for the ith link
input voltage to the jth PZT sensor pair
output controllability Grammian matrix
state controllability Grammian matrix
local vector of the two elastic lateral displacements of the ith chain
xxii
state vector in state-space representation

Cartesian position of the circular prismatic joints for ith chain
Cartesian position of the spherical joint for ith chain
Cartesian position of the vertical prismatic joints
( )
Cartesian task-space position and orientation (pose) of the

platform and spindle center of mass
local position of an arbitrary point along the link of the ith chain
( )
plant output signal

vector of output PZT sensor voltage
characteristic matrix of the smart link
vertical distance of the mass center of the moving platform from
the base platform
Greek Symbols
upper bound on the vibration attenuation of the closed-loop system
eigenvalue solution of the in-plane natural frequencies
eigenvalue solution of the out-of-plane natural frequencies
variation of the total kinetic energy of the links
variation in the Cartesian coordinate of the position vector
xxiii
Cartesian x-component of vector
at the boundaries
Cartesian y-component of vector
at the boundaries
Cartesian z-component of vector
at the boundaries
variation of the total potential energy of the links

virtual external forces done on the links
damping ratio of the rth mode
damping ratio of the kth mode
( )
( )
rth mode shape of the smart link

mode shape of the ith segment of the smart link
angular position of the actuator column of prototype II
angular position of the circular prismatic joints for ith chain
angular position of the curvilinear prismatic joints of prototype III
vector of Lagrange multipliers
eigenvalues of the state controllability Grammian matrix
eigenvalues of the output controllability Grammian matrix
mass per unit length of the PKM links
mass density of the beam
xxiv
mass density of the PZT transducer

external generalized input forces on the actuators, the platform and
spindle/tool system
angular position of the passive revolute joints for ith chain
[ ] and [ ]
eigenvectors of the entire PKM at the TCP
( )
in-plane admissible shape functions of the PKM link
( )
out-of-plane admissible shape functions of the PKM link

frequency of the applied external forces at the TCP
natural frequency of the combine link and PZT transducers
frequency set of interest
shifted resonance frequencies of the equivalent plant in resonanceshifted IRC scheme
natural frequencies of the PKM link for in-plane motion
natural frequencies of the PKM link for out-of-plane motion
kth mode natural frequency
rth mode pole of the plant
resonance frequency of the rth mode of the smart link
maximum rth mode natural frequency
minimum rth mode natural frequency
xxv
rth mode zero of the plant
Acronyms
3-PPRS
3-P Prismatic, R Revolute, S Spherical
3-PRR
3-P Prismatic, R Revolute
AMM
Assumed Mode Method
CMS
Component Mode Synthesis
DAE
Differential-Algebraic-Equation
DAQ
data acquisition
dof
degrees-of-freedom
EMA
Experimental Modal Analysis
FE
Finite Element
FEA
Finite Element Analysis
FRF
Frequency Response Function
IMSC
Independent Modal Space Control
IRC
Integral Resonant Control
LQG
Linear Quadratic Gaussian
LQR
Linear Quadratic Regulator
xxvi
mMT
meso-Milling Machine Tool
ODE
Ordinary Differential Equation
PKM
Parallel Kinematic Mechanism
PPF
Positive Position Feedback
PZT
Piezoelectric
QFT
Quantitative Feedback Theory
SRF
Strain Rate Feedback
TCP
Tool Center Point
xxvii
Chapter 1
Introduction
This chapter provides the motivation of this thesis, followed by a review of the state-ofthe-art of the literature on the topic. Subsequently, the thesis objectives, and contributions
are given, followed by a brief discussion of the thesis outline.
1.1 Thesis Motivation

Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms (PKMs) have been used in many industries that require
high accuracy, e.g. precision optics, nano-manipulation, medical surgery, and machining
applications [1]. The demands on high accuracy in such industries require the PKMs to
be built highly stiff, and massive. However, massive PKMs are not the best design
solution in terms of efficient power consumption and limited footprint for the PKMs.
Given the trend to be more efficient in terms of power consumption, modern PKMs
employ lightweight moving links, making a flexible structure that will exhibit unwanted
structural vibrations.
The structural vibration of PKMs decreases accuracy of operation, and can even damage
the PKM structural parts. The unwanted structural vibration in PKMs is either caused by
external forces applied on the PKM structure, or by the inertial forces due to
acceleration/deceleration motion of the PKM. In the former case, it is expected that
structural vibration would have the most undesirable effect on the PKM when the
frequency of the external forces applied on the PKM is close to one of the natural
frequencies of the PKM structure. For example, for PKM-based machine tools, structural
vibrations could have a significant undesirable effect when the cutting force frequency is
close to the natural frequencies of the machine tool structure [2], [3].
In order to avoid excessive vibration in general, the unwanted structural vibrations of
PKMs need to be accurately predicted, measured, and controlled. Specifically, the PKM
structural components with the largest compliance (e.g. flexible links) must be detected
and accurately modeled as the first step. Once an accurate model is developed, it must be
used for real-time control system synthesis to suppress the unwanted structural vibrations.
Moreover, an accurate structural vibration model can be used to estimate and compare
dynamic stiffness characteristics of the PKM-based machine tools at the Tool Center
Point (TCP) with an aim to enhance the structural design of PKM-based machine tools.
This thesis is focused on modeling of the structural dynamics and active vibration control
of PKMs with flexible links using piezoelectric (PZT) actuators and sensors. A
methodology is also presented for estimation and comparison of the dynamic stiffness of
various PKM-based machine tools at the TCP, which provides a basis for possible design
improvements of machine tools, as well as optimization of the TCP trajectory for
maximized stiffness. Section 1.2 provides the state-of-the-art of research on related topics
covered in this thesis.
1.2 Literature Review

1.2.1
Structural Dynamics of PKMs with Flexible Links
The development of accurate structural vibration models for PKMs with flexible linkages
has been the subject of a number of works. Among them, various modeling
methodologies such as lumped parameter modeling [4], [5], [6], Finite Element (FE)
method [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], Component Mode Synthesis (CMS) [12], and Kanes
method [13] have been proposed. Specifically, the lumped parameter approach
approximates the dynamics of the distributed-parameter flexible links of PKMs with a
number of lumped masses along the link. Due to such approximations, the lumped
parameter method might lead to results with limited accuracy. The FE-based approaches
have higher accuracy compared to the lumped parameter modeling approach, however,
FE models usually involves a large number of degrees of freedom (i.e. a large number of
equations of motion) which leads to computationally expensive approach, and hence is
not suitable for real-time control.
2
Analytical dynamic modeling methods can provide relatively accurate and time-efficient
tools that can be further used to synthesize real-time controllers. In this regard, a
recursive Newton-Euler approach was developed for a flexible Stewart platform in [4].
Using the Newton-Euler approach, the internal joint forces and moments of the PKM can
be determined. However, it is often difficult to express explicit relationships in terms of
acceleration joint variables for forward dynamics, a property of the dynamic model which
is required for real-time model based control methods. To address this limitation, the use
of energy-based methods for flexible links of the PKM along with Assumed Mode
Method (AMM) provides an elegant and systematic approach for deriving the structural
dynamic matrices in explicit closed-form [14]. Specifically, Lagranges formulation with
AMM was used to model the structural dynamics of a 3-PRR PKM with flexible
intermediate links in [1], [15] and [16].
While the focus of this research includes the structural dynamic modeling of PKMs with
flexible links, the dynamics of rigid-link PKMs is worth mentioning here. Despite the
numerous works reported on the dynamic modeling of rigid link PKMs, the
generalization of the available methods on rigid-body modeling of PKMs to those with
flexible links is not trivial. The issue arises due to the presence of unknown boundary
conditions for the flexible links of the PKMs. There have also been numerous works on
theoretical formulation, numerical simulation and experimental implementation of
structural dynamics of serial mechanisms and especially single flexible links e.g. [17],
[18], [19], [20], [21]. The methodologies developed for structural dynamic modeling of
flexible serial mechanisms can be applied to PKM linkages. However, exact structural
dynamic modeling of the entire PKM requires the use of additional methodologies related
to the incorporation of closed-kinematic chain in the PKM structure [22]. The presence of
closed kinematic chains in PKMs generally results in the existence of passive joints in
conjunction with active (or actuated) joints and modal coordinates. In most PKM
configurations, there exists no explicit expressions describing passive joint variables in
terms of active joint variables and modal coordinates and most of the existing models on
PKM structural dynamics are established based on dependent coordinates and are non3
explicit formulations. Due to the presence of closed chains, the resulting structural
dynamics of PKMs form a set of Differential-Algebraic-Equations (DAEs) which
represent differential equations with respect to the generalized coordinates and algebraic
equations with respect to Lagrange multipliers. Authors in [22] proposed various
approaches for dynamic representation of closed-chain multibody systems (e.g. PKMs) in
terms of dependent or independent coordinates. From a control design viewpoint, it is
desirable to develop the structural dynamic model of PKMs in terms of active joints and
modal coordinates only.
Considering the challenges regarding the closed-loop kinematic chain of PKMs with
flexible links, a significant issue that has not been yet addressed in the literature is the
accuracy of the admissible shape functions utilized to approximate the exact mode
shapes of the PKM flexible links. Specifically, assuming the utilization of energy-based
methodologies for the dynamic model development, admissible shape functions are
typically used in the AMM as an approximation of the unknown exact mode shapes of
the PKM links. The exact mode shapes are typically unknown since the analytical
determination of the exact mode shapes and natural frequencies requires the solution of
the frequency equation, which is very complex in the case of multilink mechanisms such
as PKMs [23]. This complexity results from the existence of non-homogeneous natural
(or dynamic) boundary conditions that must be satisfied for the shear force/bending
moment of PKM links at the end joints. The shear force and bending moments at the end
joints of the PKM links are dependent on the mass/inertia properties of the adjacent
structural components. Hence, the frequency equation, mode shapes and natural
frequencies in general, are dependent on the relative mass/inertia properties of the
flexible intermediate links of the PKM and their adjacent structural components [24].
To avoid the complexities of solution of the exact frequency equation for flexible link
mechanisms, admissible shape functions based on pinned, fixed, or free boundary
conditions are typically used in the AMM in the literature to approximate the natural
frequencies and mode shapes. Furthermore, the accuracy of the admissible shape
functions has been investigated for single link and two link manipulators in [25], [26]
with the exact (or unconstrained mode) solution for a range of beam-to-hub and beam-topayload ratios.
Generally, the adjacent structural components connected to the PKM links include the
moving platform and the payload mounted on it. Considering a PKM with flexible links
as a simple mass-spring system from a practical point of view, it is expected that the
natural frequencies of the PKM decrease if the platform/payload mass is increased.
Therefore, such intuitive effects of the platform/payload mass on the natural frequencies
of the entire PKM must be seen in its structural dynamic model. However, the use of the
existing admissible shape functions based on pinned, fixed, or free boundary
conditions does not take into account the effects of the inertia of adjacent structural
components on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the PKM links.
Thus, a crucial issue is to determine the accuracy of a set of admissible functions in
approximation of the realistic behavior of the flexible links in the context of a full PKM
structure considering the ratio of the mass of the links to the mass of the platform and
spindle [27]. Specifically, no work has been reported so far to examine the accuracy of
the use of admissible shape functions for flexible intermediate links of PKMs for a given
range of moving platform and payload mass to link mass ratios.
1.2.2
Dynamic Stiffness of Redundant PKM-Based Machine Tools
PKM-based machine tools generally provide higher stiffness characteristics than their
serial counterparts which make PKMs suitable for machining applications [28]. In PKMbased machine tools, the TCP is expected to follow a desired path in the workspace with
a required accuracy. The machining accuracy is directly related to the dynamic stiffness
of the PKM-based machine tool structure at the TCP [29], [30].
It is known that the resulting change of joint-space configuration, due to the TCP motion,
causes the structural dynamic behavior of the PKMs to experience configurationdependent variations within the workspace [31]. Knowledge of the configurationdependent structural dynamic characteristics of the PKM can provide an insight into
5
trajectory planning of the TCP in the workspace in order to avoid regions/directions of

excessive structural vibration [31]. Moreover, the excessive vibration at the TCP at a
given configuration can lead to process instability of the machine tool. Motivated by
prediction of the dynamic stability of the milling processes for machine tools, the
Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) of the machine tool structure at the TCP has been
calculated in [32], [33] for multiple configurations of the machine.
Moreover, knowledge of the configuration-dependent structural dynamic characteristics
can also be used in the design of effective closed-loop controllers to damp out unwanted
structural vibrations. In this regard, the effect of the resulting change of linkage axial
forces of a 3-dof (degree-of-freedom) flexible PKM due to its configuration change on
the natural frequencies of the PKM has been investigated in [16]. The experimental FRFs
of a flexible 3-dof PKM have been compared for a set of PKM configurations [34] for
subsequent controller design. Furthermore, the analytical and experimental, and
numerical study of the configuration-dependent natural frequencies and FRFs of flexible
PKMs are given in [7], [29], [35], [36] and [37].
Although the configuration-dependent structural dynamic behavior of the PKMs has been
examined, little work has been reported to investigate the variation of the dynamic
stiffness for kinematically redundant PKM-based machine tools such as 6-dof PKMs
utilized for 5-axis CNC machining [38]. The issue with the kinematically redundant
PKM-based machine tools is that in addition to the configuration-dependent stiffness of
the PKM for various position and orientation (pose) of the moving platform, the stiffness
at the TCP varies for a given (i.e. fixed) pose of the platform. The reason is because in
kinematically redundant PKMs, there exist infinitely many joint-space configurations
associated with a given platform pose for the PKM. Therefore, the stiffness at the TCP
can vary depending on the joint-space configuration of the robot. The use of such
kinematically redundant PKM-based machine tools have been proposed in numerous
works to improve upon the stiffness, and to reduce kinematic singularity (i.e. increase
operational workspace) of the robot, with examples given in [39], [40], [41], [42], [43],
[44].
6
Therefore, to estimate the dynamic stiffness of PKM-based at the TCP, the model should
capture both the configuration-dependent behavior of the robot within the workspace and
the configuration-dependency related to a given platform pose due to the redundancy of
the PKM. To this end, the use of FE-based calculations along with experimental
measurements can provide accurate and reliable results. Specifically, the results could be
accurate when the CAD model to be used for the FE incorporates detailed geometrical
features of PKM structure, and the kinematic joints and bolted connections are
maintained as they represent the realistic PKM structure [45].
1.2.3
Electromechanical Modeling and Controllability of

Piezoelectrically Actuated Links of PKMs
Once the structural vibration model of the PKMs with flexible links is developed, the
model must be used in a vibration control methodology to suppress the unwanted
vibrations of the PKM. To this end, various passive vibration suppression methods have
been proposed to attenuate the unwanted vibrations by developing robot links made from
composite materials with inherently superior stiffness and damping characteristics [46],
[47], [48]. However, as passive vibration suppression methods rely on the structural
properties of the robot, they are sensitive to variations in the structural dynamics of the
robot, a property which is significant in PKMs. Consequently, the vibration suppression
method to be used for PKM links must have robust characteristics with minimized
sensitivity against variations in the in the structural dynamics of the PKM.
In this regard, the use of feedback control along with PZT materials for sensing and
actuation have received growing attention. Specifically, PZT materials have many
advantageous properties such as small volume, large bandwidth, and efficient conversion
between electrical and mechanical energies. Moreover, PZT transducers can be easily
bonded or embedded with various metallic and composite structures [49].
Various methodologies employing piezoelectric (PZT) transducers have been proposed
for vibration suppression of PKMs with flexible links [50], [51], [52], [53], [54]. The
PZT transducers have been bonded or embedded within the PKM links to form a smart
7
link. Moreover, depending on the PKM architecture, the PZT transducers have been
employed in various configurations such as PZT stack actuators/sensors for suppression
of axial vibrations of PKM linkages [55], [56], [57] and PZT patch actuators/sensors for
bending vibrations of PKM linkages [9], [58].
Having designed and built a smart link, an electromechanical model that relates the input
voltage to the PZT actuators to the voltage output from the PZT sensors must be
developed. Accurate development of such electromechanical model enables successful
synthesis and implementation of the control algorithm in the closed-loop system. To this
end, several works have been proposed to model the electromechanical behavior by
developing the constitutive equations of the smart links of the PKM. The methods used in
the reported works focused on suppression of bending (or transverse) vibration and fall
into two main categories:
1) Methods that neglect the effects of the added mass and stiffness of the PZT actuators
and sensors on the dynamics of the linkages. These models develop the dynamic
models of the links using uniform beam model, and the structural dynamic model
of the beam with the PZT actuators and sensors attached is identical to that of a
simple beam. The effects of the added PZT actuators and sensors are accounted for in
the uniform beam model through incorporation of an external bending moment,
caused by the PZT actuators, to the structural dynamic model of the beam.
Furthermore, the composite beam mode shapes obtained in this approach are identical
to those of a simple beam as if no PZT actuator and sensors were attached. Namely, it
is assumed that the addition of PZT actuator and sensors to a beam does not change
its mode shapes. This approach is easy to implement, yet, the results are subject to
debate especially when the thickness of the PZTs are not negligible compared to that
of the beam. The uniform beam model has been used in works such as: [59], [60],
[61].
2) Methods that take into account the effects of the added mass and stiffness of the PZT
actuators and sensors to those of the host structure (i.e. flexible link) [61], [62], [63].
These methods utilized the stepped beam model. The stepped beam model takes
into account the effects of the added mass and stiffness of the PZT transducers to
those of the beam by adopting a discontinuous beam model (Euler-Bernoulli in [61],
[62], [63] or Timoshenko in [64]) with jump discontinuities. Using this modeling
approach, the mode shapes obtained from the composite beam structure are no longer
similar to those of a simple beam. Hence, the structural dynamics and the subsequent
controller design of the flexible links is different compared to that of the uniform
beam model. In this thesis, the stepped beam model is used to model the combined
dynamics of the beam and PZT transducers.
In addition to the issues related to the electromechanical modeling of PZT transducers, it
is known that effective vibration control of the smart structures for a number of modes
can be achieved through proper placement of the PZT transducers [65], [66]. Generally,
the effectiveness of the vibration suppression from a PZT actuator is quantified by the
controllability. In this regard, several performance indices have been defined and
reported to represent the controllability of a smart cantilever beam with PZT actuators.
For instance, the controllability of a smart beam for vibration suppression is defined
based on singular values of controllability matrices in [67], [68], [69]. The
norm of
the transfer function of the control system is utilized in [70], and the eigenvalues of the
controllability Grammian matrix [71] to represent the controllability. The controllability
considered in the above mentioned works was based on state controllability which, in
the case of flexible smart structures becomes the modal controllability. The output
controllability is used in [72] as a performance index to maximize the actual elastic
displacement that can be achieved by PZT actuators. These indices have been typically
utilized for subsequent optimization of the location, (and length and thickness) of a set of
PZT actuators to maximize controllability [73].
While several works have been reported on the optimization of the location (and
dimension) of the PZT actuators for effective vibration control of cantilever beams and
plates, little work has been done to examine the controllability of PZT-actuated links of
the PKMs. Specifically, it is known that the mode shapes of PKM links vary as a function
of the moving platform mass. Therefore, it might be possible to achieve the desired
controllability with a given PZT-actuated PKM link, by adjusting the mass of the
platform.
1.2.4
Active Vibration Control of PKMs with Flexible Links
Once the smart link is designed, a vibration control algorithm must be designed and
synthesized with flexible link of the PKM to suppress the unwanted vibrations. To
achieve this objective, various control schemes have been proposed in the literature.
Examples of the control schemes utilized for vibration suppression of smart structures
include the Strain Rate Feedback (SRF) [74], the Positive Position Feedback (PPF) [75],
and the Independent Modal Space Control (IMSC) [76]. Recently, a nonlinear/adaptive
controller with state observers was implemented on a PKM undergoing high
acceleration/decelerations [77]. The SRF and IMSC methods were subsequently used in
vibration suppression of PKM links in [48], and [78], respectively. The use of SRF while
increases the bandwidth, leads to a reduced robustness for the closed-loop system, and
the PPF method, and the IMSC was noted in [78] to lack robustness against variations in
the structural dynamics of the PKM links with the configuration. Such configurationdependent structural dynamic properties poses a significant challenge in the vibration
control of PKMs with flexible links [79]. Therefore, the variable structural dynamics of
the PKM links requires a control system design that is robust to variations in the
resonance frequencies and mode shapes of the PKM links. Also, while the control system
design is generally based in the a nominal model of the PKM link dynamics, it is
expected that in the typical use of the PKM, the vibration frequencies, and mode
amplitudes vary as a results of changes in the physical parameters of the PKM such as
added masses/payloads to the moving platform. Hence, an improvement in the robust
performance is very important. These variations in the structural dynamic characteristics
and physical parameters of the PKM are typically treated as plant uncertainties in the
10
design of the robust controller. The current status of research which addresses this issue
is briefly summarized here:
An
-based robust gain scheduling controller was proposed for a segmented robot
workspace in [80]. The controller was implemented on a piezoelectric (PZT) actuated rod
of a PKM to suppress the axial vibrations of the robot links. To account for variation in
the modal frequencies of the PKM, an
controller was proposed [56], [55] and was
implemented on a PZT stack transducer mounted on the robot links. In [51], [52], Linear
Quadratic Regulator (LQR)-based controllers were used in conjunction with Integral
Force Feedback and
-based robust controllers to suppress the axial vibrations of the
PKM link. The above-mentioned model-based robust control techniques are shown to be
able to suppress the configuration-dependent resonance frequencies of the PKM links.
However, the implementation of such control techniques on flexible robotics is often
problematic due to the mathematical complexity of the dynamic models.
The Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) is another control methodology that directly
incorporates the plant uncertainty in the controller design. Generally, the QFT approach
accommodates the frequency-domain response of a set of possible plants that fall within
the predefined parameter ranges, called the plant templates. The control scheme is
designed such that all possible closed-loop systems satisfy the performance requirements.
The QFT approach has been applied for active vibration control of a five-bar PKM [81],
and flexible beams equipped with piezoelectric actuators and sensors [82], [83], [84],
[85]. Current design methodology of the controller scheme in the QFT is based on loopshaping, which is a heuristic procedure [86].
The Integral Resonant Control (IRC), originally introduced in [87], is a relatively simple
method to suppress vibration of flexible structures equipped with collocated transducers.
Specifically, the application of the IRC approach leads to a lower order controller when
compared with other control schemes (e.g. H2, H, and LQG). The IRC scheme was
proved to perform well in vibration suppression of flexible beams [87] and single-link
manipulators [88]. Furthermore, the robustness of the IRC scheme to variations of the
11
resonance frequencies of a flexible beam was also examined in [87] and [89] by
increasing the tip mass of the cantilever beam and obtaining the closed-loop response in
the presence of the added mass.
Motivated by increasing the bandwidth of the IRC scheme, and its ability to maintain its
robustness with respect to plant uncertainties, a resonance-shifting IRC scheme was
recently introduced in [90]. The underlying concept of the resonance-shifting IRC in [90]
was to add a unity-feedback loop around the plant with a constant gain compensator in
the feed-forward path. The resulting closed-loop system was then combined with a
standard IRC control scheme to impart damping (and tracking capability) to the system.
The unity-feedback loop with constant compensator gain shifted the resonance
frequencies of the plant forward to higher frequencies, leading to an increase in the
system bandwidth.
Given the above discussion, the current literature lacks a simple control scheme with
high-bandwidth that is robust to configuration-dependent structural dynamics of PKM
links. Improvement of the controller robustness while maintaining its vibration
attenuation characteristics is a significant step that must be taken to suppress the
unwanted vibration of the configuration-dependent PKM links.
1.3 Thesis Objectives

The overall objective of this thesis is to develop an active-vibration-control system for
suppression of configuration-dependent vibration modes of PKMs with flexible links
using PZT transducers. To achieve the overall objective, the four sub-objectives that must
be attained are presented herein:
1) To develop a structural dynamic model that can accurately predict the PKM natural
frequencies and link mode shapes.
2) To develop a methodology for estimation of the configuration-dependent dynamic
stiffness of the redundant PKM-based machine tools.
12
3) To develop an electromechanical model of the PKM links with PZT actuators and
sensors and to examine the controllability of the PKM links as a function of the platform
mass.
4) To design, synthesize, and implement a robust active-vibration-control system for
suppression of the configuration-dependent vibration of flexible links of the PKMs.
1.4 Thesis Contributions

The contributions achieved in this thesis include:
1) An analytical structural dynamic model of the PKM with flexible links has been
proposed that determines the most accurate admissible shape function (i.e. the closest
one to the realistic mode shape) to be used for the modeling of the flexible links of the
PKMs, depending on the relative mass of the moving platform to the mass of the links.
It is known that the mode shapes in mechanisms with flexible links vary as a function of
the mass/inertia of the adjacent structural components [24]. For example, the mode
shapes of a two flexible link mechanism with revolute joints vary as a function of the tip
mass and hub inertia [24]. As exact determination of the exact mode shapes is complex
in flexible link mechanisms, admissible shape functions have been typically used in the
literature to address the vibration behavior of the links. However, the use of such shape
functions does not incorporate the mass/inertia effects of the adjacent structural
components such as the platform mass. The presented shape functions for the flexible
links of the PKM in this thesis are able to approximate the realistic behavior of the link
mode shape by taking into account the effects of the adjacent structural components to
the flexible links of a PKM such as the platform/payload system. Using the presented
shape function for the flexible links, the structural dynamic model of the entire PKM is
developed.
2) An FE-based methodology for estimation of the configuration-dependent dynamic
stiffness of kinematically redundant PKMs within the workspace has been developed.
The model developed to estimate the dynamic stiffness of PKM-based at the TCP, is able
to capture both the configuration-dependent behavior of the robot within the workspace
13
and the configuration-dependency related to a given platform pose due to the redundancy
of the PKM. The model enables the designer to select the configuration with maximum
stiffness among infinitely many possible PKM configurations for a given tool pose. The
method has been applied on multiple random configurations of the PKM architectures
and the results have been verified via Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA). The
configuration-dependent dynamic stiffness results obtained from the methodology can be
potentially used in an emulator (e.g. Artificial Neural Network) for fast prediction of the
dynamic stiffness which could be used in an on-line optimization algorithm to select the
configuration of the redundant PKM with the highest dynamics stiffness.
In addition, there is always a need to improve the design of the PKM through presenting
new architectures that exhibit enhanced stiffness. The same methodology presented
herein to estimate the configuration-dependent dynamic stiffness of a given PKM
architecture has been used to analyze new PKM architectures and to compare them with
other design alternatives.
3) A methodology for electromechanical modeling of a set of bender piezoelectric (PZT)
transducers for vibration suppression PKM links is presented. The proposed model takes
into account the effects of the added mass and stiffness of the PZT transducers to those of
the PKM link. The developed electromechanical model is subsequently utilized in a
methodology to obtain the desired controllability for a proof-of-concept cantilever beam
by adjusting the tip mass where it can represent a portion of the platform/payload mass.
Given the mode shapes of the PKM links depend on the platform mass, the methodology
proposed for the controllability analysis is directly applicable to the PKM links.
Specifically, the methodology can be used in the design of the platform and its mass so as
to adjust the controllability of the PKM with flexible links to a desired value. In addition,
the results can be used for an estimation of the relative control input for each PZT
actuator pair.
4) A new modified IRC-based control scheme has been proposed in order to suppress the
structural vibration resulting from the flexible links of the PKM. Typically, the resonance
14
frequencies and response amplitudes of the structural dynamics of the PKM links
experience configuration-dependent variation within the workspace. Such configurationdependent behavior of the PKM links requires a vibration controller that is robust with
respect to such variations. To address this issue, a QFT-based approach has been utilized.
It is shown that the proposed modified IRC scheme exhibits improved robustness
characteristics compared to the existing IRC schemes, while it can maintain its vibration
attenuation capability. The proposed IRC is implemented on the flexible linkage of PKM
to verify the methodology. The simplicity and performance of the proposed control
system makes it a practical approach for vibration suppression of the links of the PKM,
accommodating substantial configuration-dependent dynamic behavior.
1.5 Thesis Outline

This thesis presents the analysis of structural dynamics, dynamic stiffness, and active
vibration control of PKM with flexible links. The details involve the development of the
structural dynamic equations and link shape functions, development of FE-based models
for dynamic stiffness estimation and design improvements, conducting EMA, designing
and bonding PZT transducers to the PKM links, development and verification of the
electromechanical models of the PKM link with PZT transducers, investigation of the
variations of controllability of a proof-of-concept cantilever beam as a function of the tip
mass, development of the active-vibration-control system, design and synthesis of the
active-vibration-control scheme, and implementation of the control scheme in the activevibration-control system. The outline of the remainder of this thesis is as follows:
Chapter 2 presents the proposed method for structural dynamic modeling of the PKM
with flexible links and the accuracy of the PKM link shape functions. Chapter 3 presents
an FE-based modeling methodology to estimate the dynamic stiffness of the redundant
PKM-based machine tools at the TCP. The FE-based results are verified by EMA for
multiple configurations of the PKM. Chapter 4 presents the development and verification
of the electromechanical models of the PKM link with PZT transducers followed by the
15
controllability analysis of the smart link and its variations as a function of the tip mass.
Chapter 5 presents the design, synthesis and implementation of a new robust control
scheme for active vibration suppression of the PKM links. Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes
the findings of the thesis and offers concluding remarks as well as recommendations for
future work.
16
Chapter 2
Vibration Modeling of PKMs with Flexible Links:
Admissible Shape Functions
This chapter investigates the accuracy of various admissible shape functions for structural
vibration modeling of flexible intermediate links of Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms
(PKMs) as a function of the ratio of the effective mass of the moving platform with a
payload to the mass of the intermediate link (defined as mass ratio). The results are
applicable to any PKM architecture with intermediate links connected through revolute
and/or spherical joints. The proposed methodology is applied to a 3-PPRS PKM-based
meso-Milling Machine Tool (mMT) as an example.
2.1 Dynamics of the PKM with Elastic Links

A general PKM consists of a fixed base platform and a moving platform, as shown in
Figure 2.1.
A number of actuators are mounted on the base platform and connected to the
moving platform through intermediate links. A payload is generally mounted on the
moving platform. Depending on the application of the PKM, the payload can perform
various tasks. For instance, for PKM-based milling machine tools, the payload can be the
spindle/tool which is mounted on the moving platform. Throughout the rest of this
chapter, the spindle/tool is assumed to represent the payload, although the developed
methodology is identical for PKM payloads used in applications other than machining.
The intermediate links may exhibit unwanted vibrations, and hence yield a flexible
PKM. In the following, the extended Hamiltons principle with spatial beams utilizing
the Euler-Bernoulli beam assumption is used to systematically generate the flexible links
dynamics equations and boundary conditions [91], [92].
17
Figure 2.1.
Schematic of a general PKM with kinematic notations
2.1.1
Modeling of the Elastic Linkages
The extended Hamiltons principle for the elastic linkages of PKMs is given by:
where
, and
(2.1)
denote the variations of the total kinetic energy, total
potential energy, and the total virtual external forces done on the elastic linkages,
respectively .
Kinetic Energy
To derive the kinetic energy of the elastic links, we first assume that they are detached
from the moving platform. The resulting mechanism is a set of n serial sub-chains plus
the moving platform and spindle/tool. The dynamics of the n serial sub-chains is first
obtained and is superimposed on the dynamics of the moving platform and spindle/tool.
Having the superimposed dynamics of the PKM structural components, and considering
18
the PKM kinematic constraints, the dynamics of the entire PKM structure can be
obtained.
Let us define
( ) and
( ) as the joint-space position vectors of the actuated joints,
and passive joints of the ith sub-chain of a general PKM, respectively, as given in Figure
2.1.
Also, let us define
] as the local vector of the two elastic
lateral displacements of the ith flexible links at a point
and time , where
and
are the in-plane and out-of-plane components of the lateral elastic displacements
of the of the ith link, respectively. The absolute Cartesian position of an arbitrary point
along the ith elastic link of a general PKM at time is given by
). The total
kinetic energy of the elastic links is, then, given by:
where
(2.2)
and L are the mass per unit length and the total length of the flexible links,
respectively. Using calculus of variations, the variation in kinetic energy of the links is
written as [93]:
where
is the variation in the Cartesian coordinate of the position vector
(2.3)
. Using
forward kinematics relationships of each sub-chain, the Cartesian components of velocity

and acceleration of the ith elastic link are related to joint space velocities by the following
kinematic transformations:
19
(2.4)
and,

where
is the kinematic transformation matrix of the ith
] , and
(2.5)
elastic sub-chain. Substituting Equation (2.5),

into (2.3),
the variation in kinetic energy of
the links can be represented in terms of joint space and elastic variables.
Potential Energy
The total potential energy of the elastic links is given by:
)
(2.6)
where
and
are the area moments of inertia of the links with respect to axes normal
to in-plane and out-of-plane surfaces, E is the Youngs modulus of the linkage. Also,
is the vertical component of the position vector
. The first two terms on the right hand
side of Equation (2.6)

represent the elastic potential energy while the last term on the
right hand side represents the gravitational potential energy. The variation in potential
energy of the links is given by:
20
) (
)]
))
)
(2.7)
) (
)]
))
Virtual Work of External Forces

The total virtual work done by external forces on the elastic links is given as:
( )
( )
( )
)
( )
where
( )
and
and
(2.8)
] are the two reaction forces
acting on the two end joints of the ith elastic link (i.e.,
and,
( )
and
), respectively,
are the variations of the Cartesian components of vector
at the
boundaries. Without loss of generality, we assume that the links are connected to revolute
joints at
, and spherical joints at
, respectively. Assume that
measured in the same plane as the revolute joint angle is measured.
21
is
Boundary Conditions
Substituting the results of Equations (2.3)
and (2.7)
along with Equation (2.8)
into the
extended Hamiltons principle (Equation (2.1)),
yields a set of equations of motions that

represents the motion of active joints,
links,
, passive joints,
, and elastic vibration of the
of the ith sub-chain. Also, from the extended Hamiltons principle, the boundary
conditions for in-plane vibration of the links,
, at
(i.e. revolute joint) are
obtained as:
(
(2.9)
and,
and at
(2.10)
, (i.e. spherical joint) as follows:
(2.11)
and,
Similarly, the boundary conditions for out-of-plane vibration of the links,
(2.12)
, at,
are obtained as:

(
and,
22
(2.13)
and at
(2.14)
, as follows:
(2.15)
and,
where
and
moment, and
(2.16)
are the in-plane and out-of-plane components of the bending

and
force, respectively.
are the in-plane and out-of-plane components of the shear

(.) and
(.) are functions of the reaction forces at spherical
joints of the ith chain for in-plane and out-of-plane, respectively. Since the Cartesian
components of the reaction force vector,
, in
(.) and
(.) vary as a function of the
mass of the moving platform and spindle/tool, the realistic boundary conditions and the
resulting mode shapes and natural frequencies of the PKM links are dependent on the
mass of the moving platform and spindle/tool. To complete the structural dynamic
modeling methodology, we assume that there exist admissible shape functions
( ) and
( ) that can approximate the realistic in-plane and out-of-plane mode shapes of the ith
PKM link, respectively. These admissible functions, although unknown at the moment,
can be used in the Assumed Mode Method (AMM) to express in-plane and out-of-plane
elastic displacements of the ith link. Note that the accuracy of these various admissible
shape functions in the context of the full PKM structure will be investigated after the
procedure for structural dynamic modeling is complete. The AMM can be expressed by
the following:
23
( )
( )
( )
( )
(2.17)
( )
(2.18)
and,
where
( )
( )
( )
( )
( ) is the mth modal coordinate of the ith link. Assuming a p-mode truncation
for the ith link, the vector of modal coordinates for the ith link is as follows:
[
(2.19)
Considering the vector of modal coordinates
] of the n sub-
chains of the PKM, in conjunction with the rigid-body motion coordinates of the entire n
sub-chains of the PKM,
] , the complete set of
generalized coordinates of the PKM structure is given by
] .
Substituting Equations (2.17) and (2.18) into the variational dynamic model (Equation
(2.1)),
and performing the simplifications and integrations over the length of the links
will result in the following general discretized dynamic model for the coupled rigid-body
motion and elastic vibration of the elastic links [91]:
( )
where
( ) is the modal inertia matrix,
Coriolis and centrifugal effects,

vector of modal gravity forces.
) is the modal matrix representing
is the modal stiffness matrix, and

is a function of the reaction forces,
distal ends of the links.

24
(2.20)
( )
( ) is the
and
at the
2.1.2
Dynamics of PKM Actuators, Moving Platform, and

Spindle/Tool
Let us define the vector
( ) to represent the Cartesian task-space position and
orientation (pose) of the platform and spindle center of mass with respect to an inertial
frame {O}. The total kinetic energy of the actuators, the moving platform, and the
spindle/tool are given as follows:
where
( ( )
( ))
(2.21)
are the inertia matrices of the ith sub-chain actuator, the
, and
moving platform, and the spindle/tool, respectively. The total potential energy of the
actuators, the moving platform, and the spindle/tool is given as:
where
is the mass of each actuator,
( )
(2.22)
is the vertical component of the ith actuator
position vector,
and
are the masses of the moving platform and spindle/tool,
respectively, and
is the vertical distance of the mass center of the moving platform
from the base platform [94], [95]. Given the expressions for kinetic and potential energies
of the actuators, moving platform and spindle/tool, the energy expressions can be
substituted into the Lagranges equations to derive the equations of motion for the above
mentioned components. The Lagranges equations for the rigid body motion generalized
coordinates of the PKM for the dynamics of actuators, moving platform and spindle/tool
are given as:
25
where the vector
(2.23)
contains the external input forces on the actuators, the platform and
spindle/tool system, as well as the reaction forces at the joints.
] is the
vector consisting of all dependent rigid coordinates used in the formulations. The
dynamics of the actuators, and moving platform and spindle for all the sub-chains is then
expressed as:
(
where
) is the inertia matrix,
centrifugal effects, and
(2.24)
) is the matrix representing Coriolis and
) is the vector of gravity forces. These dynamic matrices
and vectors represent the contribution of all moving components of the PKM excluding
the links. The expanded partitioned form of the above mentioned generic matrices/vector
is given in the Appendix A.
2.1.3
System Dynamic Modeling of the Overall PKM
To derive the dynamics of the entire PKM, the matrix expressions of the dynamic
equations for the flexible links (Equation (2.20)) is superimposed with the corresponding
matrix expressions of dynamics of actuators, moving platform/spindle (Equation (2.24)).
In superimposing the dynamic equations, the virtual works done by reaction forces on the
links and the moving platform are essentially the summation of the works done by equal
and opposite forces, and do not appear in the expression for generalized forces.
Depending on the linkage configuration PKMs, one can note a number of closed-loop
kinematic chains. From the geometry of the closed-loop chains, the kinematic constraint
equations associated with the PKM closed-loop chains are given as:
26
(2.25)
where l is the number of the closed kinematic chains. The superimposed dynamics of the
PKM with n elastic links is given as:
where
] ,
] , and
(2.26)
] is the vector of
Lagrange multipliers. Equation (2.26) with the constraint Equation (2.25) form a set of
differential-algebraic-equations (DAE) that represent the dynamic and vibration of the
entire PKM. The resulting equations are DAEs of index-3 which represent differential
equations with respect to the generalized coordinates and algebraic equations with respect
to Lagrange multipliers. The DAE index is the number of differentiations needed to
convert a DAE system into an Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE). The higher the
differentiation index, the more difficult it is to solve the DAEs numerically [22]. To solve
the above DAEs, they can either be utilized in their original differential-algebraic form,
or the equations may be reduced to an unconstrained differential form [15]. Treating the
DAEs in their original form requires less algebraic manipulation than the second
approach. The resultant dynamics of the PKM involves many terms and thus is very
complex. The current available software packages can solve index-1 DAEs in their most
original form. However, such software packages have limited ability to solve index-3
DAEs and thus it is not numerically efficient to have the developed DAEs of the PKM
solved without transforming the original equations into appropriate formulations.
Therefore, the DAE model must be transformed into an appropriate formulation which is
efficient for numerical simulation. The independent coordinate formulation is used in this
thesis to reformulate the dynamic equations of motion previously established, namely
Equations (2.25) and (2.26).
27
In order to derive a closed-form dynamic model which is expressed in terms of active

joint coordinates only, Equation (2.26) can be partitioned with respect to the vector of
active rigid/modal coordinates [
coordinates[
(
] and the vector of passive/task space
] . The dynamic equation for the active coordinates is given by:

)
(2.27)
and for the passive coordinates by:

(
(2.28)
Details of Equations (2.27) and (2.28) are given in Appendix B. The vector
[
represents the external actuator forces and the vector
represents all external forces other than actuator forces. Elimination of Lagrange
multipliers from Equations (2.27) and (2.28) results in the following dynamic equation:
(
(2.29)
An expression for the passive coordinates, in terms of active independent coordinates,

can now be obtained via the kinematic analysis of the PKM:
where
(2.30)
is the transformation matrix relating the passive joint velocities to active joint
velocities. Time differentiation of the inverse kinematic relationships of the PKM yields
the inverse Jacobian, of the PKM to be defined as:
(2.31)
Evaluating the time derivative of Equations (2.30) and (2.31), the acceleration vector of
dependent coordinates can be expressed in terms of independent coordinates as:
28
]( )
(2.32)
Substituting Equation (2.32) into Equation (2.29), the equation of motion with
independent coordinates, in closed form is given as:
( )
(2.33)
where
)[
(2.34)
],
and,
,
(2.35)
and,
)(
(2.36)
Equation (2.33) represents the explicit closed-form structural dynamics of a general PKM
in terms of active joints and modal coordinates. Using the developed model, the TCP
deviation due to linkage vibration of generic PKMs can be determined.
29
To summarize, using the adopted approach in this work, the Lagrange multipliers and
acceleration terms of passive coordinates (
and ) are eliminated using kinematics
relationships of the PKM, i.e. Equations (2.30) and (2.31). Such elimination leads to the
reduced order Equation (2.33). Solution of the dynamics equations is carried out as
follows. Using forward kinematics relationships, the constraint equations are solved for
passive coordinates in position and velocity at each time step and fed back to the dynamic
model to generate the active coordinates for the next time step. Given that the forward
kinematics is solved at the position level with this approach, no time integration of
constraint equations is involved and, thus, common numerical issues such as numerical
drift are avoided in this approach [22].
2.1.4
Admissible Shape Functions
To avoid the complexities associated with solving the exact frequency equation for the
entire PKM with flexible links, classical admissible shape functions that merely satisfy
the geometrical boundary conditions (i.e. Equations (2.9),
(2.13), and (2.14))
and not
necessarily the dynamic boundary conditions (i.e. Equations (2.10),
(2.11),
(2.12),
(2.15),
and (2.16)), may be used. The classical admissible functions to be considered are
pinned-free, pinned-pinned, and pinned-fixed for in-plane and fixed-free, fixedpinned and fixed-fixed for out-of-plane.
The use of classical admissible shape functions as mentioned above leads to a frequency
equation that is independent of the platform and spindle/tool mass which might result in
inaccurate mode shapes and natural frequencies. Thus, to incorporate the platform and
spindle/tool mass dependency on the natural frequencies and mode shapes, while
avoiding the complexities of solving the exact frequency equations, we propose to
consider pinned-mass and fixed-mass shape functions for in-plane and out-of-plane
motions, respectively, and check their accuracy for various ratios of the moving platform
and spindle/tool mass to link mass. Also, we assume that the mass attached to each
flexible link, is equal to the total mass of the moving platform and spindle/tool divided by
30
the number of the PKM links, i.e. n, that is, we divide the platform and spindle/tool into n
equal mass segments. We assume that the shape functions for in-plane and out-of-plane
motions can be expressed as:
( )
(2.37)
and
( )
(
(
respectively, where
and
(2.38)
are the eigenvalue solutions associated with the in-plane
and out-of-plane natural frequencies of the link,
, and
, as:
(2.39)
(2.40)
and,
where
is the mass of the link. Assuming harmonic motion and applying the boundary
conditions on the platform end joint (i.e. where the platform and spindle/tool mass is
assumed to be attached to the link) for the pinned-mass shape function leads to the
following frequency equation from which natural frequencies and mode shapes are
calculated:
31
(
(
)
(
(
)
)
)
)
(
(2.41)
Similarly, for the fixed-mass shape function, we get:
(
(
(
(
)
)
(
)
)
(
(
)
)
)
)
(
)]
(2.42)
32
where
is the ratio of the effective mass of the moving platform and spindle to the mass
of the link, i.e.

(
, called mass ratio, where
) , with
) being the total mass of the moving platform and spindle/tool.
and
are the in-plane and out-of-plane components of the mass moment of inertia of the
effective portion of the platform and spindle/tool. The solution of Equations (2.41) and
(2.42) can then be obtained numerically for different values of the mass ratio.
2.2 Numerical Simulations

Numerical simulations are performed to examine the accuracy of the proposed pinnedmass and fixed-mass admissible shape functions along with the classical shape
functions for the flexible links of the PKM for a range of mass ratios. Once the most
accurate set of shape functions have been obtained for a given mass ratio, they are used in
the dynamic model of the PKM to predict the structural vibration response at the tooltip
as shown in Figure 2.1.
Numerical simulations which model a 3-PPRS PKM-based mesoMilling Machine Tool (mMT), developed in our laboratory as an example architecture,
are carried out. Figure 2.2
shows the mechanical structure of the mMT, and Figure 2.3
provides its schematic representation.
Figure 2.2.
Mechanical structure of the example
PKM-based mMT
Figure 2.3.
Schematic of the PKM-based mMT
33
2.2.1
Architecture of the PKM-Based mMT
As noted in Figure 2.3,

the PKM-based mMT consists of a circular base platform of
radius
on which three circular prismatic joints
(i=1, 2, 3) are mounted at points
. Three vertical columns are mounted to the circular prismatic joints. The vertical
prismatic joints
(i=1, 2, 3) are situated on these three columns, respectively, at points
. The moving platform is connected to the three columns through three flexible
linkages of length . The linkages are connected to the three columns through revolute
joints
points
. These linkages are connected to the moving platform through spherical joints at
. The prismatic joints
well as the spherical joint at
and
are actuated joints and the revolute joints
as
are passive joints. The moving platform is approximated
with a cylindrical disk having a radius of
, and the length between the center of the
moving platform and the tooltip is denoted as
. A stationary coordinate reference
frame { } is defined at the centre of the circular base platform of the system. A moving
reference frame { } is defined at the tooltip.
The in-plane displacement component of the ith elastic linkage is defined as shown in
Figure 2.4
as the lateral displacement of the linkage in the plane formed by the linkage
and the vertical column attached to it, denoted by
component is normal to the in-plane displacement and is given by
) . The out-of-plane
(
) (Figure
2.5).
Figure 2.6
shows the reaction forces at the spherical joints of the moving platform
applied to one of the linkages of the mMT.
The non-homogeneous boundary conditions of the PKM ith linkage for in-plane motion
are obtained as:
(2.43)
and for out-of-plane motion, the non-homogeneous boundary conditions are given as:
34
(2.44)
Figure 2.5.
Elastic displacement component of the
linkage for out-of-plane
Figure 2.4.
Elastic displacement component of the
linkage for in-plane
Figure 2.6.
Reaction forces at the spherical joints of the moving platform
As noted, Equations (2.43) and (2.44) contain the reaction forces that are dependent on
the mass of the platform and spindle as well as the joint space configuration of the PKM.
The natural frequencies associated with each admissible function are obtained using the
35
dimensions of the structural components given in Table 2.1

with physical parameters of
the PKM are given in Table 2.2.
Table 2.1.
Dimensions of structural components
Dimension
Value (m)
Linkage inner diameter
0.016
Linkage outer diameter
0.012
Length of the linkage
0.230
Radius of base
0.15
Radius of platform
0.0225
Thickness of platform
0.0225
Tool length
0.015
Table 2.2.
Physical parameters of the PKM structure
Physical parameter
Value
Elastic Modulus
205 GPa
Density
7850 Kg/m3
Circular actuators mass

each
0.328 Kg
Vertical actuators/joint
housing mass each
0.545 Kg
Vertical columns mass

each
0.976 Kg
Platform and spindle

mass
0.158 Kg
36
2.2.2
The Accuracy of Admissible Shape Functions as a Function

of Mass Ratio of the Platform/Spindle to Those of the Links
The focus of the simulations presented here is to examine the accuracy of the proposed
admissible shape functions to approximate the PKM link mode shapes for a wide range
of platform and spindle mass to link mass ratios. Herein, the accuracy of a given shape
function at a mass ratio is defined as the percentage error between the resulting natural
frequencies corresponding to that shape function,
mode shapes,
to those of the realistic
, of the PKM, which is expressed as:
(2.45)
The smaller the error, the more accurate a shape function is to the realistic PKM mode
shape. For each mass ratio, the eigenvalue problem associated with in-plane and out-ofplane motion is solved for each shape function, and the natural frequencies for the first
two vibration modes of the link along each direction are calculated. The natural
frequencies associated with each shape function are then compared with the modal
analysis results obtained from the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software package,
ANSYS, with an aim to compare the accuracy of each admissible shape function for a
given mass ratio. Moreover, comparison of the results of the mode frequencies obtained
from the proposed shape functions with those of the classical shape functions can
demonstrate how much improvement is achieved via the use of the proposed shape
functions.
Figure 2.7
shows the values of the natural frequencies of the first out-of-plane mode
obtained from the first mode of fixed-mass and first mode of fixed-free shape functions
compared with FEA versus mass ratio. It is noted that the natural frequencies obtained
from fixed-mass shape function yields close results to those from the fixed-free shape
function when the mass ratio is very small (i.e.
37
). This result is expected as the
links will behave dynamically close to the free boundary condition at the distal joint
when the platform and spindle mass is small compared to that of the link.
For
, both fixed-free and fixed-mass shape functions predict the realistic mode
shape with an error of 15.6% (Equation (2.45)) compared with the result obtained with
FEA. However, as the mass ratio increases from
, the natural frequencies
associated with fixed-mass shape function tends to give more accurate results than those
of the fixed-free shape function. It is noted that the use of first mode fixed-pinned, and
fixed-fixed shape functions yield the natural frequencies of 1170.3 Hz, and 1698.8 Hz
which are substantially far from first out-of-plane mode frequencies obtained from FEA
and thus are not given in Figure 2.7.
Thus, the fixed-mass shape function is found to be
300
Second out-of-plane mode

(Hz)
First out-of-plane mode

(Hz)
best mode shape approximation for the first out-of-plane mode.
200
100
0
0.001
First fixed-mass
First fixed-free
FEA
0.01
0.1
1
mass ratio (r)
10
100
3200
Second fixed-mass
First fixed-pinned
Second fixed-free
First fixed-fixed
FEA
2700
2200
1700
1200
700
200
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
mass ratio (r)
10
100
Figure 2.8.
Out-of-plane natural frequencies of the
PKM links for the second mode
Figure 2.7.
Out-of-plane natural frequencies of the
PKM links for the first mode
The second out-of-plane mode frequencies versus mass ratio is given in Figure 2.8.
Here,
in addition to the second fixed-mass and second fixed-free shape functions, the first mode
fixed-pinned and first mode fixed-fixed shape functions are considered for analysis, since
it is expected that distal joint may act like a pinned or fixed connection for the
second mode for large mass ratios. It is noted that for mass ratios of
, the
second fixed-mass shape function can better approximate the second out-of-plane mode
shape than other shape functions with an error of 15.05%. However, it is seen that as the
mass ratio increases
, the first mode fixed-pinned shape function gives closer
approximates of the second out-of-plane mode than other shape functions leading to a
38
maximum percentage error of 5.69% for first fixed-pinned. Thus, the bottom end joint
acts similar to a pinned connection for the second out-of-plane mode for
Similar analysis was conducted for the first two in-plane modes of the links. Figure 2.9
shows natural frequencies of the first in-plane mode. It is noted that the first mode
pinned-pinned shape function can better approximate the first in-plane modes than other
shape functions for the whole range of mass ratio.
First pinned-mass
First pinned-pinned
First pinned-free
First pinned-fixed
FEA
2000
1600
Second in-plane mode (Hz)
First in-plane mode (Hz)
2400
1200
800
400
0
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
mass ratio (r)
10
Figure 2.9.
In-plane natural frequencies of the
PKM links for the first mode
100
7000
Second pinned-mass
Second pinned-pinned
Second pinned-free
Second pinned-fixed
FEA
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
mass ratio (r)
10
100
Figure 2.10.
In-plane natural frequencies of the PKM

links for the second mode
The second in-plane mode frequencies are given in Figure 2.10. Similar to the case for
the first in-plane mode, it is noted that the second pinned-pinned shape function gives a
better approximation of the natural frequencies than other shape functions for the whole
range of mass ratio.
2.2.3
Structural Vibration Response of the Entire PKM-Based

mMT
Simulations of the structural vibration of the entire PKM-based mMT were performed
using the parameters given in Table 2.1
and Table 2.2. The purpose of the simulations
was to examine the effect of using various shape functions on the time response of the
tooltip for a given mass ratio. Assuming the moving platform to be a rigid body, the time
response of the tooltip is a combination of contributions from the displacements due to
the in-plane and out-of-plane modes at the distal end of the flexible links of the PKM. To
39
examine these contributions, the simulations were carried out in two sets. In the first set
of simulations, the effects of using various out-of-plane shape functions on the tooltip
response was examined with the in-plane shape functions unchanged. In the second set of
simulations, the effects of in-plane shape functions were considered, assuming that the
out-of-plane shape functions were unchanged. Both sets of simulations were carried out
for several mass ratios to examine the effects of the platform and spindle mass on the
elastic response at the tooltip.
Table 2.3 summarizes the shape functions with the closest mode frequencies to the FEA
results, as a function of the link to platform mass ratio. The recommended set of shape
functions can predict the realistic structural vibration behavior of the PKM links within
15.2% error for the whole range of mass ratios.
Table 2.3.
Summary of the recommended shape functions for the PKM links with respect to the mass ratioerror defined by Equation (2.45)
Type of motion
Recommended shape function

and maximum percentage
error for
Recommended shape function

and maximum percentage error
for
First out-of-plane
First fixed-mass
14.9%
First fixed-mass
2.56%
Second out-ofplane
Second fixed-mass
15.05%
First fixed-pinned
5.21%
First in-plane
First pinned-pinned
11.6%
First pinned-pinned 8.97%
Second in-plane
Second pinnedpinned
14.1%
Second pinnedpinned
15.2%
The shape functions with the closest natural frequencies to the FEA results for a given
mass ratio were selected for comparison with the presented fixed-mass and pinnedmass shape functions in each simulation set. Table 2.4 shows the shape functions used
for comparison of the first simulation set for each mass ratio.
40
As shown in Table 2.4,

the first and second modes of fixed-mass shape functions are
used as a reference for comparison of out-of-plane modes throughout the first simulation
set.
Table 2.4.
Shape functions used for comparison in the simulation set 1.
Mass ratio
1st out-of-plane
2nd out-of-plane
Set 1(a)
1/300
1st fixed-free
2nd fixed-mass
Reference for set 1(a)
1/300
1st fixed-mass
2nd fixed-mass
Set 1(b)
2/3
1st fixed-free
2nd fixed-mass
Reference for set 1(b)
2/3
1st fixed-mass
2nd fixed-mass
Set 1(c)
150/3
1st fixed-mass
1st fixed-pinned
Reference for set 1(c)
150/3
1st fixed-mass
2nd fixed-mass
The MATLAB solver utilized was ode15s for stiff systems. The mechanism is initially
positioned
at
the
following
] and
[
of
configuration:
. An impulse force
was applied at the tooltip at
to excite the vibration
modes of the linkages.

Figure 2.11
corresponds to simulation set 1(a) which shows the elastic response of the
tooltip for mass ratio of
. The two responses are noted to have approximately
the same frequency, as predicted by Figure 2.7

for
However, the presence of
the inertia force, due to the end-mass in the fixed-mass shape function, leads to a
greater distal end displacement of the links than seen with the fixed-free shape function.
This leads to tooltip response amplitude of the fixed-mass shape function which is
greater than that of the fixed-fee shape function. Thus, while the fixed-free shape
41
function, accurately predicts the out-of-plane natural frequency for low mass ratios,
Tooltip response (m)
simulation with this mode shape tends to under-predict the response amplitude.
1st fixed-mass for r=1/300
1st fixed-free for r=1/300
1
0
-1
-2
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (s)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Figure 2.11.
Tooltip time response for 1st fixed-mass and 1st fixed-free shape functions for the first out
of-plane mode at
Figure 2.12
is related to simulation set 1(b) and shows the elastic response of the tooltip
for mass ratio of
. It is noted that the difference in response amplitudes and
frequencies is more significant as the mass ratio increases from of

2.11)
to
(Figure
(Figure 2.12).
Simulation set 1(c) compares the effects of two shape
functions as the 2nd out-of-plane mode in the tooltip response with the tooltip response
shown in Figure 2.13.
It is noted that unlike the previous cases, the use of the 1st fixedpinned shape function for high mass ratios does not lead to a noticeable difference
compared with use of the 2nd fixed-mass shape function.
Note that the use of fixed-mass shape functions, which accounts for the dynamic
effects of the platform and spindle, the general trend from Figure 2.11
to Figure 2.13
demonstrates the expected trend of a decrease in natural frequency with a corresponding

increase in the response amplitude, as the mass ratio increases from
to
.
The shape functions used for comparison in the second simulation set are given in Table
2.5.
Since the FEA frequencies, as shown in Figure 2.9
and Figure 2.10
are close to the
pinned-pinned shape functions for both in-plane modes, they are used as a reference for
comparison with pinned-mass shape functions as given in Table 2.5.
42
1st fixed-mass for r=2/3

1st fixed-free for r=2/3
16
8
0
-8
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
0.06
0.08
0.1
Figure 2.12.
Tooltip time response for 1st fixed-mass and 1st fixed-free shape functions for the first out
of-plane mode at
400
1st fixed-pinned for r=150/3
300
2nd fixed-mass for r=150/3
200
100
0
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
0.06
0.08
0.1
Figure 2.13.
Tooltip time response for 2nd fixed-mass and 1st fixed-pinned shape functions for the
second out-of-plane mode at
Table 2.5.
Shape functions used for comparison in the simulation set 2.
Mass
ratio
1st in-plane
2nd in-plane
Set 1(a)
1/300
1st pinned-mass
2nd pinned-mass
Reference for set 1(a)
1/300
1st pinned-pinned
2nd pinned-pinned
Set 1(b)
2/3
1st pinned-mass
2nd pinned-mass
Reference for set 1(b)
2/3
1st pinned-pinned
2nd pinned-pinned
Set 1(c)
150/3
1st pinned-mass
2nd pinned-mass
Reference for set 1(c)
150/3
1st pinned-pinned
2nd pinned-pinned
43
Figure 2.14,
Figure 2.15,
and Figure 2.16

show the time response at the tooltip for mass
ratios of
, and
, respectively. It is noted that the use of
pinned-pinned and pinned-mass shape functions leads to negligible difference in the

tooltip response amplitude. In contrast, the use of these shape functions led to significant
differences in the natural frequencies of the response specially for very high and very low
mass ratios (see Figure 2.9
and Figure 2.10).
The reason for such small difference is the

negligible contribution of the in-plane modes due to the assumption of a pinned joint at
the distal end of the flexible links. Thus, although the use of pinned-mass and pinnedpinned shape functions leads to the same small contribution to the overall tooltip
response, the pinned-pinned shape functions can more accurately predict the natural
Tooltip response
(m)
frequencies due to the in-plane modes.

pinned-mass for r= 0.01/3
pinned-pinned for r=0.01/3
2
0
-2
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
0.06
0.08
0.1
Tooltip response
(m)
Figure 2.14.
Tooltip time response for 1st and 2nd pinned-mass and 1st and 2nd pinned-pinned shape
functions for the first and second in-plane modes at

.
20
pinned-mass for r=2/3

pinned-pinned for r=2/3
10
0
-10
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (s)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Figure 2.15.
.
44
Tooltip response
(m)
400
pinned-mass for r=150/3

pinned-pinned for r=150/3
200
0
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
0.06
0.08
0.1
Figure 2.16.
.
2.3 Summary
In this chapter, the accuracy of admissible shape functions used to predict the structural
vibration modes of Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms (PKMs) with flexible intermediate
links was investigated as a function of the ratio of the effective mass of the platform and
spindle to the mass of the flexible links (i.e. mass ratio). The modes of each admissible
shape function were calculated and compared to the modal analysis results of the PKM
from Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with respect to the mass ratio. The shape functions
with closest natural frequencies to the FEA results were selected for comparison with the
proposed fixed-mass shape functions for out-of-plane modes, and pinned-pinned
shape functions for in-plane modes in the vibration modeling methodology developed in
this chapter to predict the tooltip response.
As a result of the use of fixed-mass shape functions, the expected dependency of the
natural frequencies and response amplitudes of the whole PKM structure to the mass ratio
is taken into account. Comparison of the tooltip time responses shows that the use of
fixed-mass and pinned-pinned shape functions can accurately predict the out-ofplane and in-plane vibration modes of the PKM with flexible links over a large range of
mass ratios. Furthermore, the in-plane modes are seen to have negligible contribution to
the overall response of the tooltip. Given the mass ratio, the results of this analysis can be
used as a guide to the selection of the most accurate shape function to represent the
realistic behavior of the structural vibration of a generic PKM with revolute and/or
spherical joints. Unlike FEA-based modal analysis, the presented method provides a
45
time-efficient solution for accurate prediction of the structural vibration response of the
PKM. The approach to model boundary conditions for PKMs leads to a better
approximation to the realistic dynamic behavior compared with other boundary
conditions. The resultant dynamic model, with more accurate structural vibration
modeling, can then be used for control system synthesis to design controllers for both
rigid body motion and suppression of the unwanted flexible linkage structural vibrations.
46
Chapter 3
Dynamic Stiffness of Redundant PKM-Based Machine
Tools
This chapter provides a methodology for estimation of the dynamics stiffness of
redundant PKMs within the workspace. The dynamic stiffness is extremely important is
machine tool design as it is directly related to the operational accuracy of the machine.
The cutting forces resulting from the interaction of the tool and the workpiece are
typically transferred to the machine tool structure. If the cutting force frequency is close
to one of the resonance frequencies of the machine tool, excessive structural vibration
will occur leading to process instability (i.e. chatter), or even damage to the machine tool
[2]. Therefore, the dynamic stiffness must be accurately predicted.
The dynamic stiffness of PKMs is typically known to exhibit configuration-dependent
behaviour within the workspace. Furthermore, as 6-dof PKMs are redundant for 5-axis
CNC machining, a given pose of the moving platform corresponds to infinitely many
joint-space configurations. Therefore, the model must be able to capture the variations of
the configuration-dependent dynamic stiffness both within the workspace for different
moving platform poses, and for a given pose of the moving platform.
In general, the directional displacement of the TCP at one of its resonance frequency
modes is the resultant contribution from its structural components such as links, and
columns, and the contributions from the clearance/preload of the joints, bearings, and
actuators [96]. The methodology and results of this chapter provides the basis for a fast
and accurate tool for on-line estimation of the dynamic stiffness for any PKM
configuration which could be later used in an optimization algorithm to select the
configuration of the redundant PKM with the highest dynamic stiffness. In addition, the
presented model can also be used for comparative analysis of dynamic stiffness among
various PKM-based machine tool designs.
47
3.1 Dynamic Stiffness Definition

Figure 3.1
shows the schematics of a generic PKM. As illustrated, the PKM undergoes an
elastic displacement of ( ) at the TCP when it is subjected to a dynamic loading ( ) at
the same point for the given configuration.
Figure 3.1.
Schematic of a generic PKM
Now, considering the PKM as a general spatial structure, its directional dynamic stiffness
at the TCP can be represented via the Cartesian Frequency Response Function (FRF)
matrix with respect to a Cartesian frame which is expressed as [97]:
(
(
)
)
where i is the imaginary operator. (
(
(
(
)
)
)
(
(
(
), and (
)
)
)
(
(
(
)
)]
)
) are the frequency spectrums (i.e. the
fast Fourier transforms) of the displacement and force vectors,

respectively. Therefore, the element
(3.1)
( ) , and
( ),
) in Equation (3.1)
can be obtained by
dividing the frequency spectrum of the displacement amplitude of the TCP along axis u,
by the frequency spectrum of the applied force to the TCP along axis v.
represents
the direct-axes FRF component when u and v-axes are the same and it indicates crossaxes FRF terms when u and v are different axes. Assuming the first
48
-resonance modes
encompass the frequency range of interest used in the analysis, the FRF matrix element
) can be represented by [98]:
[ ] [ ]
(3.2)
where [ ] and [ ] are the eigenvectors of the entire PKM structure at the TCP, along
u, and v-axes, respectively.
ratio;
represents the mode of the vibration,
is the damping
is the natural frequency for mode k. To obtain the minimum directional
dynamic stiffness for a given PKM configuration, one needs to obtain the peak amplitude
from each element of the FRF matrix. As an alternative to Equations (3.1)
and (3.2),
the
dynamic stiffness matrix,
( )
where
, and
, of a PKM for a given configuration can be defined as [99]:
( )
( )
(3.3)
are the structural mass, equivalent damping, and static stiffness
matrices of the PKM, respectively. In Equation (3.3),
denotes the frequency of the
external force applied at the TCP. Assuming the PKMs as lightly damped structures, it is
noted from Equation (3.3)
that when the frequency of the applied force is close to one of
the structural resonance frequencies of the PKM, the term (
) on the right hand
side of Equation (3.3)

becomes approximately zero leading to the minimum values for
dynamic stiffness. Therefore, it would be reasonable to consider the minimum dynamic
stiffness at the TCP of the PKM as the salient feature of the PKM structural dynamic
behaviour. In this thesis, dynamic stiffness is obtained using the FE software package,
ANSYS.
As a result of changes in the PKM joint-space configuration, the FRF peak amplitudes
experience configuration-dependent variations. As an example, if the PKM shown in
Figure 3.1
moves from an arbitrary configuration AA to another configuration BB, the
peak amplitude FRF could change from
to
49
leading to a change in the minimum
dynamic stiffness (Figure 3.2).
FRF magnitude
(m/N)
Configuration BB
Configuration AA
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 3.2.
FRF amplitudes of a PKM for two example configurations
3.2 Dynamic Stiffness Estimation

The proposed FE-based methodology to calculate the dynamic stiffness is applied and
experimentally verified on two prototype PKM-based meso Milling Machine Tools that
were built at the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory (CIMLab) at the
University of Toronto. These PKM prototypes are both of 3PPRS topology, where P,
R, and S denote prismatic, revolute, and spherical joints, respectively.
3.2.1
Architecture of the Prototype PKMs
The two prototype PKMs, herein called prototype II and prototype III, are shown in
Figure 3.3,
and Figure 3.4,
respectively, with their architecture given in Figure 3.5, and
Figure 3.6.
According to Figure 3.3,
prototype II consists of a circular base platform on
which an actuator column and two vertical posts are mounted. The actuator column
consists of two actuators which can move in vertical and horizontal directions. The two
posts are bolted to the base platform; however, the radial position of the posts can be
adjusted in order to obtain a specific configuration. The angular positions of the actuator
column, and the two posts are measured counter-clockwise with respect to the center of
each of the chains corresponding rail and are denoted as
, and
, respectively as
shown in Figure 3.5.

The vertical positions of the two posts can be adjusted through
bolted connections. The vertical positions of the actuator column and the two posts are
50
measured from the base platform to the corresponding revolute joints for each chain and
are denoted as
, and
, respectively.
The architecture of prototype III consists of a (fixed) base on which three identical
kinematic chains are mounted (Figure 3.6).
Each chain comprises two actuators: the first
(actuated) prismatic joint moves along a curvilinear rail, and its angular position is
denoted by
; the second (actuated) prismatic joint, mounted on top of the
first one, moves linearly in the radial direction, and its linear position is denoted by
;a
(passive) revolute joint is mounted on top of the second prismatic joint, which connects a
fixed-length link to the moving platform via a spherical joint. Further details on the
dimensions of the prototypes can be found in [100].
Considering the 6 dof 3PPRS PKM prototype III to be utilized for 5-axis machining, the
PKM shows kinematic redundancy. Specifically, for a given tool pose within the
workspace, there are infinite PKM configurations that lead to same platform roll angle i.e.
the rotation about the tool axis. This redundant dof , i.e. the platform roll angle can be
used for optimizing the dynamic stiffness.
3.2.2
FE-based Calculation of the Dynamic Stiffness
The FE model of the prototype PKMs at a given configuration was generated using the
CAD model of the corresponding mechanism in the software package, ANSYS. The
Cartesian FRFs of the PKM at the TCP are calculated via harmonic analysis using FE.
For the harmonic analysis, a 1 N sinusoidal force was applied to the TCP of the moving
platform for every PKM configuration along the x-axis. The 1 N harmonic force
represents periodic loads created during the meso-milling operations for which the
cutting force magnitude are expected to fall within the range of 100 mN-1N [101]. The
frequency for the harmonic force is varied from [0-1000] Hz. The displacement of the
TCP was calculated along the Cartesian coordinates for the frequency interval [0-1000]
Hz. This analysis was repeated with a force of the same magnitude/frequency range
applied along the y, and z-axes as well.
51
Figure 3.3.
Prototype II
Figure 3.4.
Prototype III
Figure 3.6.
Architecture of PKM prototype III
Figure 3.5.
Architecture of PKM prototype II
The element type used in the FE analysis was a 4-noded Tetrahedron. A convergence
test was done on the FE model to obtain the optimal mesh size. The optimal mesh size
were obtained as 0.8 mm for critical areas of the PKM structures (such as contact
interfaces), and 3.5 mm for non-critical areas. The contact interfaces that were
incorporated between the structural components of PKM were the rolling interfaces and
the bolted interfaces. The rolling interfaces included the joint bearings for the revolute
and spherical joints, the curvilinear guide bearings, and the prismatic actuator bearings.
The bolted interfaces included connections of the upper actuator stage to the revolute
joint housing, and the connections of the spherical joint housing to the links. Accurate
calculation of the dynamic stiffness required the rolling interfaces and bolted interfaces to
52
be modeled in the FE environment; which is non-trivial due to the dependence of joint

characteristics such as contact surface conditions, friction, and damping [98]. For the FE
model, the rolling interfaces were modeled using sliding contacts for the joint bearings
for the rolling interfaces. The bolted interfaces were modeled using frictional contact
with the friction coefficient set as 0.2.
3.2.3
Experimental Verification of the FE-Based Model
Verification of the FE model was performed via Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA).
The procedure for EMA is based on impact testing of the PKM structures. The set-up of
the EMA is shown in Figure 3.7.
Figure 3.7.
Set-up of the experimental modal analysis
A Kistler 9724A2000 impulse force hammer is used to hit the moving platform in a given
direction for each configuration and a Kistler 8632C50 accelerometer is used to measure
the directional acceleration of the moving platform. The impulse force hammer and
accelerometer signals pass through a Kistler 5134 DC current supply. The time-domain
outputs are acquired at a rate of 10 KHz for 8 seconds using an NI-USB6211 data
acquisition (DAQ) device. The FRF of the time-domain signals is constructed using
LabVIEW user-generated code for a frequency range of [0-800] Hz. Each experiment is
53
repeated five times and averaged in order to establish the repeatability of the results and
to reduce the noise.
It is known that the development of an accurate damping model in mechanisms is
challenging, and the determination of damping is usually done through experiments.
Damping in mechanisms mainly results from contacting surfaces at bolted joints and
sliding joints. This type of damping constitutes more than ~90% of the total damping in
machine tools, and is referred to as interfacial slip damping [102]. Another type of
damping, referred to as material damping, results from the damping inherent to the
material the machine tool is made from. The material damping only accounts for ~10%
of the total damping in machine tools [102].
The damping ratios of the joints were incorporated by updating the FE model with the
modal damping obtained from experiments. To this end, a multimode partial fraction
curve-fitting algorithm was used for modal parameter estimation of the FRFs obtained
from FE model [103]. The Cartesian FRFs of the FE model were captured for 4
configurations for prototype II, and 8 random configurations of the prototype III. These
configurations are listed in Table 3.1
and Table 3.2.
Table 3.1.
Joint space configurations chosen for prototype II
Configuration
(o)
(o)
(o)
(mm)
(mm)
(mm)
Home
65
65
65
AA
65
65
65
+30
30
BB
90
90
90
+30
30
CC
90
90
90
+30
30
+30
54
Table 3.2.
Joint space configurations chosen for prototype III
Configuration
(o)
(o)
(o)
(mm)
(mm)
(mm)
Home
AA
+20
+20
15
+15
BB
+10
20
15
15
CC
10
20
+15
15
+15
DD
+20
15
15
EE
10
20
15
15
FF
20
20
20
15
15
GG
+20
+20
+15
15
+15
3.3 Results and Discussions

3.3.1
Prototype II and Prototype III
Figure 3.8(a-d),
Figure 3.9(a-d),
and Figure 3.10(a-d)
show the xx, xy, and xz-components

of FRFs of prototype II as an example for 4 of the random configurations, respectively. It
is noted that the FRFs obtained from the FE model exhibit reasonably similar behavior
with those of the experimental FRFs. Similar behavior is seen for other components of
the FRFs as well. Moreover, a strong dependence on the configuration is clearly seen in
the FRF peak amplitudes and corresponding frequencies.
55
Figure 3.8.
FRFxx amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b) configuration AA, (c)
configuration BB, and (d) configuration CC
Not surprisingly, the mode frequencies corresponding to the peak amplitude FRFs are the
same for a given configuration along various FRF components. These frequencies and the
corresponding mode shapes obtained from the FE model are listed in Table 3.3
and
Figure 3.11,
respectively.
Table 3.3.
Mode frequencies corresponding to the peal amplitude FRFs of prototype II
Configuration Mode frequency (Hz)

Home
104.9
AA
130.3
BB
100.1
CC
102.3
56
Figure 3.9.
FRFxy amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b) configuration AA, (c)
Figure 3.10.
FRFxz amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b) configuration AA, (c)
57
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 3.11.Mode
shapes of prototype II at the dominant frequencies for (a) configuration Home, (b)
configuration AA, (c) configuration BB, and (d) configuration CC
From Figure 3.11(a-d),
it is noted from that the bending vibration of the vertical posts and
that of the actuator column is responsible for the dominant modes of prototype II. The
results of such analysis assisted in the modification of the design of prototype II.
Specifically, it was noted that the elimination of the vertical column could result in
improved stiffness behavior [104]. An improved stiffness behavior was seen when the
vertical column was replaced with a horizontal one which lead to the design of prototype
III. Figure 3.12
shows the xx-components of the FRF magnitudes of prototype III for 4
configurations (out of 8 selected configurations) as an example.
58
Figure 3.12.
FRFxx amplitudes of prototype III for (a) configuration Home, (b) configuration AA, (c)
The xx and zz components of FRF amplitudes of all eight configurations are given in
Figure 3.13
and Figure 3.14
for the FE model as an example. The two mode shapes of
prototype III for home configuration are also given in Figure 3.15.
Figure 3.13.
FRFxx amplitudes of prototype III for 8 random configurations
59
Figure 3.14.
FRFzz amplitudes of prototype III for 8 random configurations
Figure 3.15.
Mode shapes of prototype III at configuration Home for (a) 1st mode at 85 Hz, and (b) 2nd
mode at 157 Hz
The incorporation of the bolted interfaces in the developed FE model required the CAD
model of the PKM to include detailed geometrical features such as holes of small
diameters, leading to a computationally intensive calculations (~8h on Intel i7-2.80 GHz
with 12 GB RAM on 64 bit Windows 7). In order to reduce the computational time, a
simplified FE model was created with detailed CAD geometrical features of the bolted
interfaces being suppressed. The rest of the assumptions used to create the simplified FE
model were identical to those of the original model.
Due to the geometrical simplifications, the FE model was not able to predict the absolute
FRF amplitudes as the full-order model for each configuration, however, it was noted that
60
the simplified FE model was able to capture the relative dynamic stiffness behavior of
the original FE model. Since the ultimate objective of this analysis is to predict the
dynamic stiffness of the PKMs to optimize the configuration for maximized stiffness, it
would be sufficient to develop a model that can follow the same relative trend as for the
original FE model, even though the FE model is unable to predict the absolute stiffness
values.
Figure 3.16
shows a relative comparison of the FRF peak amplitudes of the simplified FE
model with those of the original model for the 8 random configurations (Table 3.2).
It is noted that the simplified FE model is able to capture the relative dynamic stiffness
behavior of the PKM. Therefore, the methodology utilized to develop the simplified FE
model can be used for comparative analysis and design purposes.
Figure 3.16.
Variation of FRF peak amplitudes for 8 configurations using (a) original, and (b) simplified
FE model
61
3.3.2
Comparative Analysis of PKM Architectures
In addition to the optimization of the PKM configuration for maximized stiffness, the
developed methodology for obtaining the dynamic stiffness was used in comparative
analysis of various PKM architectures. Specifically, the proposed 3PPRS PKM concept
(based on which Prototype III was built) was compared with similar three known 6-dof
PKM architectures which were capable of achieving a platform tilt angle of 90. These
PKMs were the Eclipse PKM [38], the Alizade mechanism [105], and the Glozman
mechanism [106]. All of the compared mechanisms are redundant for 5-axis machining.
The CAD models of these PKMs are shown in Figure 3.17
[ 99].
Figure 3.17.
Compared 6-dof PKMs (a) the Eclipse PKM, (b) the Alizade PKM, (c) the Glozman PKM,
and (d) the proposed PKM
62
Figure 3.18
shows the Cartesian xx, yy, and zz components of the FRFs for the compared
PKMs fore home configuration. It is noted that the proposed PKM has the highest
dynamic stiffness along the x and y axes, and the Eclipse and Alizade mechanisms have
higher dynamic stiffness along the z-axis. Also, it is noted that the dynamic stiffness of
each PKM is decreased along the axis, on which the first links act as cantilever beams.
For the Alizade mechanism, the chains are constructed from one prismatic kinematic
coupling that connects the base and the platform. Hence, it does not include a link that
acts as a cantilever beam, and it is stiffer along the z-axis.
Figure 3.18.
FRF for all PKMs along the (a) xx, (b) yy, and, (c) zz directions
63
In addition to the comparative analysis of the above mentioned PKMs, the developed FEbased methodology in this thesis was used for comparative analysis of a new redundant
Pentapod Parallel Kinematic Machine with further details given in [107], [108].
3.3.3
Redundancy
Considering 6-dof PKMs for 5-axis CNC machining, the roll angle of the platform (i.e.
the angle along the tool axis) can be regarded as redundant for machining. Therefore, for
a given (i.e. fixed) pose of the moving platform, there exists infinitely many distinct roll
angles, which correspond to infinitely many distinct joint-space configurations of the
PKM. Therefore, the roll angle of the platform can be potentially used for optimization of
the PKM configuration for a given tool pose.
In addition to the configuration-dependent behavior of the dynamic stiffness within the
workspace, it was noted that the model must be able capture the variation of the dynamic
stiffness of redundant PKMs for a given (i.e. fixed) pose of the moving platform. To this
end, three random distinct joint-space configurations were chosen for a given pose of the
moving platform for the proposed PKM architecture (Figure 3.17(d)).
These three
configurations are given in Figure 3.19.
(a)
(b)
64
(c)
Figure 3.19.
Three redundant configurations for a given platform pose.
Figure 3.20
shows the FRFxx of the three redundant configurations at the TCP. It is noted
from that the peak amplitude and the resonance frequency of the FRFs undergoes
variations for these configurations, confirming that the model is able to capture the
kinematic redundancy of the PKM [109].
Figure 3.20.
FRFxx of three redundant configurations for a given platform pose.
65
3.4 Summary
An FE-based methodology was proposed in this chapter to estimate the dynamic stiffness
of redundant PKMs at the TCP. The FE-model was developed via a harmonic analysis of
the PKM structure in ANSYS for a given PKM architecture. The FE-model was verified
through experimental modal analysis of two PKM-based meso-Milling Machine Tool
prototypes built in the CIMLab at the University of Toronto. It was shown that the
dynamic stiffness of the PKMs undergo strong configuration-dependent behaviour in
terms of amplitude and mode frequency both within the workspace and for a given
platform pose due to kinematic redundancy. The methodology utilized to develop the FEmodels can provide a basis for optimization of the redundant 6-dof PKM configuration,
to achieve the highest stiffness along the tool path for 5-axis machining. Also, the FEbased modeling methodology was utilized in comparative dynamic stiffness analysis of
new PKM architectures for 5-axis machining.
66
Chapter 4
Electromechanical Modeling and Controllability of
PZT Transducers for PKM Links
This chapter provides the methodology for electromechanical modeling of a set of bender
piezoelectric (PZT) transducers to suppress the unwanted transverse vibrations of PKM
links. Development of an accurate electromechanical model of the PZT-actuated (i.e.
smart) PKM links enables successful synthesis and implementation of the vibration
control algorithm in the closed-loop system. To this end, the stepped beam model is
adopted in this thesis which takes into account the added mass and stiffness of the PZT
transducers to those of the PKM link. The resonance frequencies and mode shapes (and
spatial derivatives) of the smart PKM link obtained from the stepped beam model are
compared to the commonly used uniform beam model which neglects the mechanical
effects of the PZT transducers.
In addition to the methodology presented for electromechanical modeling of the smart
PKM link, the variations of the controllability of the PKM flexible links, from a set of
PZT actuator pairs, is investigated as a function of the platform mass. It is known that
effective vibration control of the smart structures for a number of modes can be achieved
through proper placement of the PZT transducers. To this end, various optimization
algorithms have been employed in the literature to achieve maximized controllability.
Herein, a simplified methodology is proposed to obtain the desired controllability for a
proof-of-concept cantilever beam for a set of PZT actuators by adjusting the tip mass.
Given the mode shapes of the PKM links in general are dependent on the platform mass,
the methodology proposed for the controllability analysis of the cantilever beam is
directly applicable to predict the controllability of the PKM links. Specifically, the
methodology can be used in the design of the platform and its mass so as to adjust the
67
controllability of the PKM with flexible links to a desired value. In addition, the results
of this chapter can be used to gain an estimation of the relative control input required for
each PZT actuator pair.
4.1 Electromechanical Modeling

4.1.1
Stepped Beam Model
Let us consider a uniform flexible beam with p identical PZT transducer pairs. For the
sake of modeling simplicity, we assume that the PZT transducers are perfectly bonded on
the top and bottom surfaces, as shown in Figure 4.1.
Herein, we consider each PZT
transducer to comprise a PZT actuator and a PZT sensor, where the latter is positioned at
the center of the transducer through an electrode isolation process from the PZT actuator.
The PZT transducers enable sensing and actuation of the transverse vibration of the link.
The jth PZT actuator generates a bending moment,
, when a voltage,
is applied
across the actuator electrodes. Similarly, the jth PZT sensor generates a voltage,
it is subjected to a transverse mechanical displacement at point
The thicknesses of the beam and each transducer are denoted as
, when
in Figure 4.1.
and
, respectively.
The PZT transducers are bonded to the beam such that the direction of polarization for
each PZT actuator pair is the same, i.e., the combined beam and PZT actuators operate in
a bimorph configuration with parallel operation. The bimorph configuration refers to the
beam and PZT transducer structural arrangement where two identical PZT transducers
are mounted on the top and bottom of the host structure (e.g. the beam). For the same
motion, the parallel operation chosen here requires half the voltage required for the series
operation, where the polarization direction of the two PZT actuators are opposite to each
other [110].
68
Figure 4.1.
Schematic of the beam and the PZT actuator pairs
The stepped beam model adopted here takes into account the effects of the added mass
and stiffness of the PZT transducer pairs to those of the beam by adopting a
discontinuous Euler-Bernoulli beam with N jump discontinuities as shown in Figure 4.2.
According to this figure, the beam is partitioned into
segments (
), where
the mass per length and the flexural rigidity of the ith segment are denoted as
(
and
) , respectively. The positions of the discontinuities of the ith segment with respect to
the beam origin O to the are denoted as
and
and the width of the beam and the PZT
transducer is denoted as b. In order to obtain the relationship between the input voltage to
the PZT actuators and the output voltage from the PZT sensors, the transverse vibration
behavior of the combined beam and PZT transducers must be known first.
Figure 4.2.
Euler-Bernoulli beam model for N jump discontinuities.
69
To this end, the governing equations of the transverse vibration of the combined beam
and PZT transducers, with arbitrary boundary conditions are given as follows [111]:
(
where
( )
( )
( ) is the variable flexural rigidity,
(4.1)
( ) is the variable mass per unit length of
the combined beam and PZT transducers, and
) is its transverse displacement.
Assuming the solution is separable in time and space and applying the harmonic time
solution into Equation (4.1),
the eigenvalue problem associated with the ith beam segment
is given as:
( )
;
where
(4.2)
( )
,
( ) is the mode shape function of the ith segment. The general solution for the
mode shapes for the ith segment is given as:
( )
where
transducers.
. and
,
, and
(4.3)
is the natural frequency of the combined beam and PZT

are mode shape coefficients that are determined by
applying the arbitrary boundary conditions at
and
along with the
continuity conditions on the ith segment. For the first and last segments, the boundary
conditions are applied on one end of these segments and the continuity conditions are
applied at the other end. For all other segments, the continuity conditions are applied on
both ends of the segment. The continuity conditions are applied for the displacement,
slope, bending moment, and shear force at the points of discontinuity and are given by
[111]:
70
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
(4.4)
( )
In order to obtain the mode shape coefficients for each segment, the characteristic matrix
of the system, (
) is formed by applying the continuity conditions along with the
boundary conditions on each segment. The characteristic matrix of the system is a

matrix with
being its only variable [111]. In order to determine a non-trivial
solution for the mode shape coefficients, the frequency equation is formed by setting the
determinant of (
) equal to zero, as:
[ (
The values of
)]
(4.5)
satisfying Equation (4.5)

constitute the natural frequencies of the
combined beam and PZT transducers. The mode shape coefficients associated with each
natural frequency are normalized so as to satisfy the following orthonormality condition
for the rth mode shape:
( )
( ))
The final normalized mode shapes of the system for the rth mode are given as:
71
(4.6)
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
(4.7)
( )
The mode shapes obtained are further used in the development of an input-output
relationship between the PZT actuator and PZT sensor voltages as follows. Using these
normalized mode shapes, the response of the system can be given as:
( )
( )
( )
( )
(4.8)
Before proceeding with the system dynamic model, the constitutive equations for bender
PZT actuators in bimorph configuration, for parallel operation are given in Section 4.1.2.
4.1.2
PZT Actuator Constitutive Equations
Consider the jth PZT transducer pair that is perfectly bonded to the surfaces of a beam in
bimorph configuration, (Figure 4.1).
The arbitrary jth PZT transducer pair consists of two
identical PZT transducers with the PZT actuators that constitute the majority of the
transducer area. The constitutive relationship between the input voltage to each actuator
pair and the resulting transverse displacement of the compound beam and PZT pair,
neglecting the viscous and structural damping effects, is given as [62]:
( )
where
( )
( )
( ) is the input voltage to each actuator in the jth pair and
( )
(4.9)
( ) is the second
spatial derivative of the distribution function of the input voltage over the jth PZT actuator
72
pair. For the configuration as given by Figure 4.1,

the distribution function
( ) is
given as:
( )
where
[ (
(4.10)
)]
( ) is the Heaviside function. Equation (4.10)
shows that the voltage input to the
jth PZT actuator has a uniform profile over the PZT actuator length and is zero elsewhere.
The coefficient
is defined as follows [112]:
(
where
(4.11)
is the Youngs modulus of the PZT actuator material, and
is the transverse
piezoelectric strain constant.
4.1.3
PZT Sensor Constitutive Equations
Considering the jth PZT sensor pair perfectly bonded to a beam, the voltage that is
generated across the sensor electrodes is approximated as:
( )
where
(4.12)
, is the position of the center point of the jth actuator i.e. the location
of the sensor. It is assumed that the actuator constitutes the majority of the PZT
transducer. The coefficient
is given as:
where
is the capacitance of the PZT sensor.
73
(4.13)
4.1.4
System Modeling of the Combined Beam and PZT

Transducers
Substituting Equation (4.8)

into (4.9)
and utilizing the orthonormality of the mode shapes,
the mass-normalized electromechanical equations of the cantilever beam with a tip mass
are expressed as:
( )( )
( )( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
(4.14)
(4.15)
where,
, and
are the rth mode damping ratio and resonance frequency. The
electromechanical equations in state-space form are expressed as:
where
(4.16)
( )(
( )(
of
modal
]
(
] . Also,
the input voltage to the actuators and

vector
coordinates.
[
[
where
[
( )
( )
Defining
74
the
[ ]
( )
( )
( )]
( )
( )
( )
sensor
( )]
voltage
is
is the
as
( )
( )
matrix
is
given
as
( )
[
( )
( )]
( )
where
( )
( )(
]. It is noted that matrix
( )
contains terms that depend on the slope (i.e. first spatial derivative) of the mode shapes at
the distal ends of the PZT actuators. This matrix will be of particular importance in the
subsequent controllability analysis as will be discussed in Section 4.2.
Having all of the dynamic matrices between the PZT actuator and sensor voltages, the
transfer function matrix between the actuator input voltage vector,
output voltage vector,
, and the sensor
is obtained as:
( )
( )
( )
(4.17)
4.2 Controllability
As noted, the control influence matrix , is a function of the slope of the mode shapes at
the two distal ends of the PZT actuator. The standard measure of controllability adopted
herein is based on the eigenvalues of the Grammian matrix [72], [113]. The eigenvalues
of the output controllability matrix represent the ability of a particular PZT actuator pair
to control the transverse vibration modes of the smart link within a frequency range of
interest. The state controllability Grammian matrix can be expressed as [72], [114]:
( )
Due to the presence of
(4.18)
in Equation (4.18),
the state controllability is dependent on the
location of the PZT actuators. Specifically, matrix
is a function of the spatial
derivatives of mode shapes as mentioned in Section 4.1.4 The eigenvalues of

are a measure of the control energy that is required to bring all the states (i.e. all modes)
of the system to a desired value. The higher the eigenvalues of
, the less control
energy is required to bring all the states to desired values, namely, the system is more
75
controllable. The corresponding performance index defined for controllability is defined

as:
)
(
where
(4.19)
is the eigenvalue of the state controllability Grammian matrix. To obtain
the output controllability, an output vector based on the actual elastic displacement of
the beam at a point of interest, (
) is defined. Each element of the output vector
represents the contribution of a particular mode to the elastic displacement. The output
vector is defined as follows:
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )(
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )(
)
( )
( )( )
( )
)]
( )}
(4.20)
( ) ( )]
The above equation can be regarded as a transformation from modal variables to physical
output variables. Matrix
is also the transformation matrix. The output controllability
Grammian matrix at
is then expressed as:
Similar to the state controllability, the performance index can be expressed as:
76
(4.21)
(4.22)
)
(
where
is the eigenvalue of the output controllability Grammian matrix.
To apply the controllability measures on the smart link, it is assumed that the beam with
p simultaneous input voltages from the p PZT actuators is equivalent to the superposition
of one PZT actuator attached to beam at a time. Mathematically, the superposition can be
expressed as:
(
[
( ) ]
(4.23)
( )
( )
( ) ]
The output controllability of the beam with a set of p PZT actuators for the simultaneous
suppression of the first n modes, can be obtained by calculating the output controllability
of each of the individual PZT actuators, and superimposing the controllability results of
the individual PZT actuators
4.3 Numerical Simulations and Experimental Validation

The simulations and experiments are performed on a proof-of-concept clamped-mass
smart link which is made of Aluminum with a tip mass attached to its free end as shown
in Figure 4.3.
The tip mass used in the modeling represents an equivalent mass of the
77
moving platform of the PKM (see Chapter 1). Three PZT transducer pairs are bonded on
the aluminum beam in a bimorph configuration. The dimensions of the aluminum beam
and each PZT transducer is given in Table 4.1.
The electrode configuration for each PZT
transducer is designed as follows: each
PZT transducer sheet has an
electrode isolated region such that a
area at the middle of the transducer is
electrically isolated from the rest of the transducer. The
area is used as the
sensor and the rest of the PZT is utilized as the actuator in the experiments as shown in
Figure 4.3.
Without loss of generality, we assume that the center-point of the three PZT
transducer pairs are located at
, and
Figure 4.3.
PZT transducer configuration of the smart link
Table 4.1.
Dimensions of the beam and PZT transducer.
Dimension (in millimeter)
Value
Beam length ( )
PZT actuator length (
Beam and PZT transducer width ( )
78
Beam thickness ( )
PZT actuator thickness ( )
The PZT transducers are made of 5H4E material from Piezo Systems Inc. with the
properties given in Table 4.2.
The tip mass is 0.0132 kg.
Table 4.2.
Materials of the beam and PZT transducer.
Material property
Value
70
Beam Youngs modulus (
PZT Youngs modulus (
Beam density(
62
2700
7800
PZT transducer density(
PZT transducer strain constant (
4.3.1
Unit
Stepped Beam Model Verification
Experiments were conducted to verify the electromechanical model of the PZT

transducer pairs with the beam. A chirp signal (i.e. a sinusoidal input voltage with the
frequency that varies from zero to 1000 Hz with a constant rate) is applied on the PZT
actuator and the output voltage of the corresponding sensor is captured. Figure 4.4 shows
the FRF of the experiments compared with those of the Stepped Beam Model and
Uniform Beam Model model for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd PZT transducer pairs as an
example. It is noted from Figure 4.4 that the natural frequencies of the stepped beam
79
model are closer to the experimental values than those of the uniform model. Therefore,
the stepped beam model provides a more realistic electromechanical behavior than the
uniform model. The improvement on the use of the stepped beam model is observed from
Figure 4.4.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4.4.
FRFs of the PZT transducer pair obtained from experiments, uniform model, and stepped beam
mode for (a) 1st pair, (b) 2nd pair, and (c) 3rd pair
80
The mechanical damping ratio of the stepped beam model is identified graphically by
matching the peaks of the experimental data [115]. Figure 4.5
and Figure 4.6
show the
first three normalized mode shapes and normalized modal strain distributions along the
beam with PZT transducer pairs versus normalized link length, respectively. The modal
strains are obtained by twice differentiating the mode shapes with respect to the beam
length. The jumps in the strain values for the stepped beam model in Figure 4.6
result
from enforcing the shear force and bending moment balance conditions at the boundaries
of the PZT pairs. It is noted that the use of the uniform beam model tends to overestimate
the strain distribution of the link for those portions where PZT transducers are bonded.
(a)
(b)
81
(c)
Figure 4.5.
First three mode shapes of the beam with PZT transducer pairs: (a) 1st mode, (b) 2nd mode, and
(c) 3rd mode
(a)
(b)
82
(c)
Figure 4.6.
First three modal strain distributions along the beam with PZT transducer pairs: (a) 1 st mode, (b)
2nd mode, and (c) 3rd mode
4.3.2
Controllability Analysis as a Function of the Tip Mass
Assuming simultaneous control of the first three modes, the state controllability and
output controllability of the proof-of-concept cantilever beam with three PZT actuator
pairs were calculated for each individual PZT actuator. The tip mass were varied from 0
to 10X (10 times its actual value) in the simulations and the state controllability and
output controllability at each PZT actuator location was calculated for each tip mass.
It should be noted that the objective, herein, is not to conduct optimization-based
methods to determine location, and dimensions of the PZT transducers for maximized
controllability. The proposed method is just an alternative to the commonly used
optimization methodologies. Herein, we state that it is possible to achieve the desired
controllability, to some degree, by adjusting the moving platform mass of the PKM. The
advantage of the proposed method is its relative simplicity compared to optimizationbased methods.
The proposed method is not directly comparable to the optimization-based methods in the
literature, as the variables are different, (location/dimension of the PZT transducers in the
optimization-based method, and the moving platform mass in the proposed method).
83
The underlying idea of the proposed methodology is that by changing the tip mass, the
resulting mode shape (and its slope) would undergo variations. Therefore, it is possible to
achieve the desired controllability by obtaining a specific mode shape (and slope), which
indeed, corresponds to a specific tip mass. Figure 4.7
shows the variation of the mode
shapes as a function of the tip mass for the first three resonance modes of the smart
cantilever beam. The general trend of decrease in mode shape amplitudes (and slopes) is
observed from the graphs.
(a)
(b)
84
(c)
Figure 4.7.
Variation of the mode shapes as a function of the tip mass for (a) 1 st mode, (b) 2nd mode, and (c)
3rd mode
Figure 4.8
shows the state and output controllability of the three PZT pairs. The general
trend shows a decrease of the controllability for the 1st and 2nd PZT actuators as the tip
mass increases. For the 3rd PZT actuator, there is a noticeable increase from 0X to 1X.
Furthermore, it is seen that both state and output controllability results show almost the
same trend of variations although the results of the two controllability indices are
completely different.
(a)
85
(b)
Figure 4.8.
Variation of the controllability indices of the individual PZT pairs based on (a) state
controllability (b) output controllability
4.4 Summary
In this chapter, a methodology based on the stepped beam model was proposed for
electromechanical modeling of a set of bender piezoelectric (PZT) transducers to
suppress the unwanted transverse vibrations of PKM links. The stepped beam model
was adopted herein which takes into account the added mass and stiffness of the PZT
transducers to those of the PKM link. The resonance frequencies and mode shapes (and
spatial derivatives) of the smart PKM link obtained from the stepped beam model were
compared to the commonly used uniform beam model which neglects the mechanical
effects of the PZT transducers.
The developed electromechanical model of the smart PKM link was utilized in a
simplified methodology to obtain the desired controllability for a proof-of-concept
cantilever beam for a set pf PZT actuators by adjusting the tip mass. Given the mode
shapes of the PKM links depend on the platform mass, the methodology proposed for the
controllability analysis of the cantilever beam is applicable to the PKM links. Specifically,
86
the methodology can be used in the design of the platform and its mass so as to adjust the
controllability of the PKM with flexible links to a desired value. In addition, the results
of this chapter can be used to gain an estimation of the relative control input required for
each PZT actuator pair.
87
Chapter 5
Design, Synthesis and Implementation of a Control
System for Active Vibration Suppression of PKMs with
Flexible Links
In this chapter, a new modified Integral Resonant Control scheme is proposed for
vibration suppression of the flexible links of Parallel Kinematic Mechanisms (PKMs).
Typically, the resonance frequencies and response amplitudes of the structural dynamics
of the PKM links experience configuration-dependent variation within the workspace.
Such configuration-dependent behavior of the PKM links requires a vibration controller
that is robust with respect to these variations. To address this issue, a Quantitative
Feedback Theory (QFT) approach is utilized herein. In this chapter, we provide both
simulation and experimental evidence of the performance of this approach. First, we
present results utilizing a simple cantilever beam, with a variable tip mass to change the
structural mode frequencies and response amplitudes, (called plant templates). The
proposed IRC scheme is synthesized with the plant templates within the QFT
environment to compare its (i) robust stability and (ii) vibration attenuation with the
existing IRC schemes. It is shown that the proposed modified IRC scheme exhibits
improved robustness characteristics compared to the existing IRC schemes, while it can
maintain its vibration attenuation capability. The proposed IRC is subsequently
implemented on a flexible linkage mounted in a PKM at four different configurations to
verify the methodology. The simplicity and performance of the proposed control system
makes it a practical approach for vibration suppression of the links of the PKM,
accommodating substantial configuration-dependent dynamic behavior [116].
5.1 System Model

To apply the active vibration control to the PKM links, it is assumed that multiple PZT
bending transducers are mounted on the surface of the flexible links of a PKM. The
88
eletromechanical equations of the PKM flexible links relate the input voltage to the PZT
bender actuators to the output voltage from the PZT bender sensors. We utilize existing
dynamic models of this structure, with appropriate citations of the literature. The
truncated
-mode modal equations of the combined PKM links with
PZT transducer(s)
pairs in its general form can be expressed as [58]:
where
, and
(5.1)
are the modal mass, modal damping, and modal stiffness
matrices of the PKM links, respectively.
and
are the
coordinates and the PZT actuator voltages vectors, respectively,
and
is the
modal
matrix
containing actuator electromechanical coefficients as well as the mode shape derivatives.

Finally,
is the
vector that reflects (i) the modal forces resulting from the
inertial forces due to the coupling effect among the various PKM links and (ii) the modal
forces resulting from the motor dynamics of the PKM. Further details and explanation of
the coupling terms is given in [58]. Matrices
and
in their general form contain
nonlinear terms that are dependent on the joint-space configuration of the PKM. The
resulting response under this configuration-dependent dynamics would be variations in
the structural dynamic characteristics.
In order to illustrate the performance of the proposed control scheme, a cantilever beam
with variable tip mass is considered as a proof-of-concept. Such a choice of the cantilever
beam avoids the complications arising from the coupling effects between the PKM links
and, the motor/joint dynamics (i.e.
in Equation (5.1)).
Furthermore, the variable tip
masses of the cantilever beam can represent the variable structural dynamics of the PKM
link. Subsequently, the approach is implemented on the flexible link of the PKM.
The transfer function of the cantilever beam with a variable tip mass, following Equation
(4.17)
can be written as:
89
(5.2)
( )
where
is the modal residue of the transfer function, and can be
expressed as:
( )
( )
( )
For (nearly) collocated PZT actuators and sensors, we must have
(5.3)
Herein, to account for the variations of the structural dynamics of the PKM link, the tip
mass is treated as a variable. As a result of the changes in the tip mass, the natural
frequencies and modal residues of the transfer function vary within the range of
[
] and [
], respectively. As we shall see in Section 5.3, such
variations in the structural dynamic characteristics are treated as system uncertainties to

be accommodated by the controller design.
5.2 Controller Design

The proposed control scheme is a new modification of the Integral Resonant Control
(IRC) scheme, that was originally introduced in [87] and was later modified in [90]. The
proposed control scheme is implemented on a proof-of-concept cantilever beam with
variable tip mass. To account for the parameter uncertainty in the controller design, a set
of plants (i.e. plant template) are generated within the QFT design environment. The
modified IRC scheme is designed based on a nominal plant within the template and
synthesized with it to compare its (i) robust stability and (ii) vibration attenuation
characteristics with the existing IRC methods. In the following, we briefly review the
existing related IRC literature, to provide the basis for the modified IRC approach,
presented in this thesis.
90
5.2.1
Overview of the Standard Integral Resonant Control (IRC)
The design procedure for the standard IRC was originally provided in [87] and is briefly
reviewed in this Section. Figure 5.1(a)
shows the block diagram of the IRC scheme

introduced in [87], where ( ) is the compensator transfer function, ( ) is the plant
transfer function, and ( ),
, and ( ) are the reference input, disturbance input, and
plant output signals for the closed-loop system, respectively. It is known that the phase
response of flexible collocated systems lies between
and
and it exhibits a pole-
zero alternating pattern in the frequency domain [87], [117]. It was shown in [87] that by
adding a constant term,
(called feed-through) to ( ), a zero less than the first natural
frequency of the plant is added. Furthermore, the modified plant, ( ), shows zero-pole
alternating pattern of [89]:
(5.4)
where
( )
) is the rth zero and
margin of
) is the rth pole, if
. A negative integral controller in negative feedback, which adds a
constant phase lead of

between
and
, will yield a loop transfer function whose phase response lies

; that is, the closed-loop system has a highly desirable phase
, [87].
(a)
(b)
Figure 5.1.
( a) IRC scheme proposed in [87], and (b) its equivalent representation.
91
To avoid high controller voltages at low frequencies, and to facilitate the stability
analysis, the above IRC control scheme was rearranged in an equivalent form as shown in
Figure 5.1(b),
where ( ) is the input to the plant [118]. In the equivalent form, ( ) is

obtained in its general form as [119]:
( )
( )
(5.5)
( )
Therefore, if an integral compensator ( )
is used, the equivalent compensator can
be rearranged as ( )
5.2.2
Resonance-Shifted IRC
The resonance-shifted IRC was introduced in [90] to order to improve the bandwidth of
the standard IRC scheme. To assist the reader with the IRC scheme presented in this
chapter, the resonance-shifted IRC is briefly reviewed. The resonance-shifting IRC closes
a unity feedback loop with a constant gain compensator, (
), as given in Figure
5.2.
Figure 5.2.
Resonance-shifted IRC scheme in [90].
92
Application of the unity feedback with the constant compensator gain on the plant
transfer function given by Equation (5.2)
results in a stable equivalent plant transfer
function from ( ) to ( ), which is expressed as:
( )
( )
( )
(5.6)
We assume that the modes are well-spaced, and therefore the mode-coupling is neglected
here. It is noted from Equation (5.6)
that the natural frequencies of the equivalent plant
transfer function are increased to
5.2.3
, increasing the system bandwidth.
Proposed Modified IRC
The modified IRC scheme presented herein is obtained by removing the compensator
gain from the feed-forward path of the resonance-shifted IRC and placing it in the
feedback loop (Figure 5.3).
The equivalent representation of the block diagram of the
proposed control system is given in Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.3.
Proposed modified IRC scheme
93
Figure 5.4.
Equivalent representation of the proposed modified IRC scheme
Similar to the resonance-shifted IRC, the equivalent transfer function of the plant for the
proposed resonance-shifting IRC, from ( ) to ( ) is expressed as:
( )
( )
( )
Comparing Equations (5.6)

and (5.7),
it is noted that for
function of the proposed IRC scheme,
shifted IRC,
(5.7)
, the equivalent transfer
( ), is smaller than those of the resonance-
( ), and the standard IRC, ( ). (
( )
( ), and
( )
( )). As
we shall see in the Section 5.3.1, the reduced equivalent transfer function of the proposed
IRC scheme leads to improved robust stability compared to the other two control
schemes.
5.3 Utilization of the IRC-Based Control Schemes in

Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT)
The QFT was originally introduced in [120] as a robust control methodology that aims to
attain the desired performances for the closed-loop system under the existence of plant
uncertainty and plant disturbances. Herein, an overview of the existing QFT method in
94
the literature is briefly provided to facilitate subsequent analyses with further details
given in [86].
Utilizing a frequency-domain approach, the QFT method takes into account the
parameter uncertainty by systematically generating the set of all possible plants (called
the plant template) that can be achieved using the parameter ranges given in the problem
[86]. The plant template contains a number of possible plants for a given frequency range
of interest. The plant template is represented in the Nichols chart, where each plant at a
given frequency can be presented by a point in the Nichols chart. A different plant at the
same frequency may be represented by a different point than the previous plant in the
Nichols chart. Therefore, all possible plants at a given frequency would constitute a set of
points in the Nichols chart. Same would apply to other frequencies. A nominal plant (i.e.
with specific parameters) is chosen for the entire frequency range of interest for
subsequent analyses. Once the plant template and the nominal plant are obtained, a set of
bounds must be defined to ensure that all possible plants in the template can meet the
requirements. For vibration control structures undergoing parameter uncertainty, these
requirements are the (i) robust stability and (ii) vibration attenuation (represented via
disturbance rejection) which are further discussed here.
5.3.1
Robust Stability
The stability margin is represented via gain margin (GM) and phase margins (PM) or the
correlated
contour (called U-contour), as discussed in detail in [83]. The specified
gain and phase margins of every plant within the plant template must be sufficient to
ensure robust stability against parameter variation. The U-contour is represented in the
Nichols chart. To guarantee a sufficient phase margin, the loop gain (denoted as
))
must not enter the U-contour in the Nichols chart at any of the given frequencies, [121].
The U-contour for a unity-feedback system is defined as:
95
where
( )
in terms of
( )
)
(
(5.8)
for the three control systems. The stability margins are expressed
as [121]:
(5.9)
(
For the standard IRC scheme (
), the loop gain is given by
Similarly, for resonance-shifted IRC (

the loop gains are expressed by
) (
), and the proposed IRC schemes (

(
), and
).
),
),
respectively. It was noted in Section 5.2.3 that the equivalent transfer function for the
proposed IRC was smaller compared to those of the resonance-shifted IRC and the
standard IRC. Therefore, it is concluded that:
)
(
)
(
)
(
)
(
(5.10)
The above inequalities imply that the closed-loop magnitude of the proposed IRC scheme
is smaller than those of the standard IRC and the resonance-shifted IRC. Namely, smaller
values of
can be set for the proposed IRC scheme compared to the other two control
schemes which leads to larger gain margin, and phase margins. Therefore, the magnitude
of the FRF,
), is considered as the index of robust stability for the closed-loop
system.
96
5.3.2
Vibration Attenuation
The vibration attenuation is represented via the input disturbance of the control system in
the presence of disturbances at the input of the plant. To satisfy the disturbance rejection
requirement, the FRF from the plant disturbance to its output must be less than or equal
to the required value over a frequency band of interest. In other words, we must have:
( )
|
( )
( )
(5.11)
5.4 Results and Discussions

The simulation and experimental results of the proposed modified IRC method is
presented and compared with the standard IRC and resonance-shifted IRC schemes. As a
first step, the results are given for the proof-of-concept flexible beam with variable tip
mass, followed by comparative analysis of the (i) robust stability and (ii) vibration
attenuation based on the QFT method. Following this, the proposed modified IRC
scheme is implemented on a PKM prototype with flexible links at multiple configurations.
5.4.1
Proof-of-Concept
The plant used as the proof-of-concept is a cantilever beam with three pairs of (nearly)
collocated actuators and sensors and a tip mass (Figure 4.3).
The dimensions and

properties of the aluminum beam and each PZT transducer used in the simulations is
given in Table 4.1and
Table 4.2.
Herein, the control design is presented for the 1st PZT transducer pair only. To represent
the variable structural dynamics in the plant, the tip mass was varied from its nominal
value of 1X (i.e. 13.2 grams) to 4 times its nominal value, or 4X (i.e. 52.8 grams) by
manually adding additional masses to the tip of the beam. Figure 5.5
shows the
97
experimental FRFs of the beam when the tip mass was increased from 1X to 4X. As
expected, the resonance frequencies of the system with the additional mass (4X) are
reduced compared to those of the nominal mass.
Figure 5.5.
Open-loop FRFs for variable tip mass.
As a result of changing the tip mass, the first three resonance modes and their
corresponding modal residues of the open loop transfer function (Equation (5.2))
were
calculated to vary within the ranges, as given in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1.
Variation ranges for the beam resonance frequencies and modal residues.
Tip mass
1X (nominal)
222.63
1787.1
5188
2206
13645
996162
4X
129.46
1533.5
3803
754.7
3916.2
243929
41.8%
14.1%
26.7%
65.8%
71.3%
75.5%
Percentage
variation
98
To compare the (i) robust stability, and (ii) vibration attenuation of the proposed IRCbased controller, with those of the standard IRC and resonance-shifted IRC schemes, the
following procedure was followed. The nominal plant transfer function was selected to be
. A set of performance specifications with respect to robust stability and disturbance
attenuation was defined for the closed-loop system, for the frequency band of 0-1000 Hz.
A standard IRC compensator, ( )
, was synthesized with the nominal plant
using MATLAB Control System ToolboxTM. The controller gain , and pole
were tuned to satisfy the constraint on the performance specifications using numerical
optimization of the toolbox. The feed-through term was calculated from
ensured that the condition
( )
, and
( ) } is satisfied for all possible
plants. If the condition was not satisfied, the numerical optimization was repeated to
obtain a different value of the gain and the pole. For the nominal system at hand, the
controller parameters were calculated as
and
. For resonance-
shifted IRC and proposed IRC schemes, the standard IRC was synthesized using the
tuned parameters with the equivalent plants
( ), and
( ), respectively. It should be
noted that the feed-forward gain for the resonance-shifted IRC scheme and feedback gain
for the proposed IRC scheme must be selected so as to ensure closed-loop stability. This
can be checked via the root-locus of open-loop system. From the root-locus plot of the
resonance-shifted IRC scheme, the range of the compensator gain to achieve stability is
obtained as
. The gain value of
was chosen for subsequent analysis.
Herein, the objective of the control system design was focused on suppressing the 1st and
3rd modes of the cantilever beam. The 2nd mode exhibited relatively lower controllability
index compared to the 1st and 3rd modes due to the placement of the 1st PZT actuator pair
along the beam, and hence vibration suppression of this mode was not pursued in the
analysis.
The simulation results of the closed-loop system were verified with experiments. Figure
5.6(a-c)
shows the closed-loop system obtained from simulations and experiments for the
99
three control schemes tested for 1X tip mass, as an example. Good agreement is observed
between the simulation and experimental results for the three control schemes.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 5.6.
closed-loop FRFs of the proof-of-concept for 1X for (a) strandard IRC, (b) resonance-shifted
IRC, and (c) proposed modified IRC schemes
Figure 5.7(a-c)
show the experimental FRF magnitudes of the closed-loop system using

the standard IRC, resonance-shifted IRC, and the proposed IRC schemes, respectively, all
100
with tip masses of 1X and 4X. It is noted that the standard IRC is able to attenuate the
first resonance modes for 1X and 4X by at least 10 dB. However, the standard IRC
provided less attenuation for the 3rd resonance mode, due to the limited controller
bandwidth. Using the resonance-shifted IRC scheme (Figure 5.7(b)),
it was noted that the

attenuation for the 3rd modes was improved, while the attenuation of the 1st modes was
comparable to those of the standard IRC scheme.
For the proposed IRC scheme (Figure 5.7(c)),
the attenuation of the 1st and 3rd modes was

noted to be approximately similar to that of the resonance-shifted IRC scheme. To further
compare the robustness of the proposed IRC with the resonance-shifted IRC, the QFT
analysis is conducted using the QFT Toolbox in MATLAB [122]. In the following, we
utilize the approach taken in [121] to analyze the robustness and vibration attenuation of
the proposed IRC controller. As the first step, the plant template is created given the
parameter variation range in Table 5.1.
101
Figure 5.7.
FRF magnitudes of the proof-of-concept for open-loop and with (a) standard IRC, (b)
resonance-shifted IRC, and (c) proposed IRC.
102
Figure 5.8
shows the plant template for the proposed IRC scheme for a frequency range
of [
as an example. This frequency range encompasses the variation in
frequency of the first resonance mode (Table 5.1).

It should be noted that the frequency
vector for the QFT design environment must have sufficient resolution to capture all
plant variations within the band of interest. Herein, for the sake of clarity, the plant
template is only shown for a limited set of frequency points.
Once the plant template is created, the (i) robust stability and (ii) vibration attenuation
requirements are defined. At every frequency point, the robust stability and the vibration
attenuation requirements set bounds upon the closed-loop FRF magnitude of the system,
given by Equation (5.8), and Equation (5.11), respectively. To satisfy both requirements
simultaneously, the union of the bounds, called the U-contours for each requirement is
obtained from the Nichols chart [121].
Figure 5.8.
Plant template in the QFT design environment.
The next step is the synthesis of the controller with the plant template. The synthesis is
performed with the Nichols chart with all the U-contours for the frequency band of
103
interest. To compare the robust stability and disturbance attenuation capabilities of the
control schemes, the three IRC-based control algorithms previously designed are utilized
for synthesis with the plant template. Figure 5.9
and Figure 5.10
compare the robust
stability and disturbance attenuation of the closed-loop systems with the resonanceshifted IRC and the proposed IRC schemes under the worst case scenarios of the plant
parameter variation. The worst case scenario corresponds to the maximum FRF
magnitude of the plant open-loop among possible open-loop plants within the template, at
a specified frequency.
It is noted from Figure 5.9
and Figure 5.10
that the utilization of the proposed IRC leads
to a closed-loop response with less sensitivity, and improved robustness to parameter
variations than that of the resonance-shifted IRC for almost the entire frequency range.
Furthermore, the proposed IRC is able to maintain its disturbance attenuation capability
as shown in Figure 5.10.
Considering the above, conclusions are based on the application
of the proposed IRC scheme on the proof-of-concept cantilever beam with variable tip
mass, our premise of utilizing the proposed IRC scheme to suppress the configurationdependent structural vibration of PKM links is satisfied.
Figure 5.9.
QFT robust stability of the compared control schemes.
104
Figure 5.10.
QFT disturbance attenuation of the compared control schemes.
5.4.2
Application of the Proposed IRC-Scheme to Vibration

Suppression of the PKM with Flexible Links
The PKM utilized herein is Prototype III (see Chapter 3) with one of its links is made to
be flexible with three pairs of PZT transducers attached on its surface (Figure 5.11).
The
flexible modes of this flexible linkage have substantially lower resonant frequencies than
the other two linkages; hence, the modal coupling due to the presence of other links is
avoided as much as possible.
It should be noted that the other two existing IRC schemes were already compared with
the proposed IRC scheme in sub-section 5.4.1. Specifically, it was shown that the
standard IRC scheme has limited capability of suppressing the 3rd mode due to its
limited bandwidth. Also, the resonance-shifting IRC scheme was shown in the robustness
analysis to exhibit lower robust stability than the proposed IRC scheme. Therefore, the
existing IRC schemes were excluded from the closed-loop analysis of the PKM with
flexible links. The proposed IRC scheme was implemented on the PKM given in Figure
5.11.
The active vibration control system utilized the LabVIEW Real-Time Module [123],
[58].The diagram of the control system is shown in Figure 5.12.
105
Figure 5.11.
PZT transducers bonded on flexible link of a PKM.
The sensor signals were acquired and filtered using an NI SCXI 1531 signal conditioning
unit, with a 4-pole low-pass Bessel filter of 2.5 KHz cut-off frequency. For the control
processing unit, we used a desktop-PC with Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo processor with 3 GB
of memory, running the LabVIEW Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), as the Target
PC. The sampling frequency was 4 KHz. A swept sine (chirp) signal of 3V (peak-to-peak)
was applied over a frequency band of 0-1000 Hz to the 1st PZT actuator as the
disturbance input and the sensor signal from the 1st PZT sensor was captured and postprocessed using a Host PC as the user interface. The transfer function of the controller
obtained from the simulations was discretized and implemented in the LabVIEW realtime code. The output command signal from the controller was amplified using the SS08
power amplifier from SensorTech and applied to the PZT actuator.
106
Figure 5.12.
Diagram of the active vibration control system.
To examine the performance of the controller under variable structural dynamics

behavior of the PKM, four different joint-space configurations were chosen as an
example, as given in Table 5.2.
Table 5.2.
Four configurations selected for vibration control experiments.
Configuration
name
(mm)
(mm)
(mm)
(degree)
(degree)
(degree)
Home
AA
-20
+15
-15
+15
BB
+20
-20
+15
-15
CC
-20
-20
-15
+15
-15
107
For each configuration, the open-loop transfer function of the flexible link of the PKM
was measured.
Figure 5.13
shows the open-loop FRFs of the PKM link for four
configurations. It is noted that the modes undergo variations in terms of both resonance
frequencies and amplitudes.
Specifically, three set of modes are noted in the open-loop response. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
set of modes occurs at the frequency ranges of [153-229] Hz, [368-465] Hz, and [12961342] Hz, respectively.
Figure 5.14(a-d)
shows the FRFs of the PKM links with and without the control applied
for each configuration. It is noted that the 1st and 2nd set of modes, herein called low
frequency modes, do not undergo significant changes with configuration, and likely arise
due to joint clearances.
Figure 5.13.
Open-loop FRF pf the PKM link for four example configurations.
108
Figure 5.14.
FRF of the flexible PKM link with and without controller for (a) configuration AA, (b)
configuration BB, (c) configuration CC, and (d) configuration Home.
However, note that the 3rd set of mode amplitudes, arising from the bending vibration of
the links, are suppressed using the proposed IRC control scheme. The time-response of
the PKM link, when the mode corresponding to the link is suppressed, is shown in Figure
5.15
for home configuration as an example. The results of Figure 5.14
and Figure 5.15
show that the proposed IRC scheme is able to suppress the configuration-dependent
vibrations resulting from the links of the PKM with reasonable amount of suppression.
Specifically, the proposed controller is robust in the presence of variations of resonance
frequencies and mode amplitudes while the vibration attenuation capabilities are
maintained.
109
Figure 5.15.
Time-response of the PKM link for configuration Home.
5.5 Summary
In this chapter, a new modified Integral Resonant Control scheme is presented and
implemented for vibration suppression of the flexible links of PKMs exhibiting
configuration-dependent resonance frequencies and mode amplitudes. The proposed IRC
scheme is compared with the existing IRC schemes in terms of its robust stability and
vibration attenuation under variations in the natural frequencies and mode amplitudes.
Using a Quantitative Feedback Theory method, it is demonstrated that the presented IRC
scheme has improved robustness over the existing IRC schemes while maintaining its
vibration attenuation capabilities.
The significance of the robust performance is that in addition to the configurationdependent structural dynamics of the PKMs, it is expected that in the typical use of the
PKM, the vibration frequencies, and mode amplitudes change due to unknown changes in
the physical parameters of the PKM, such as added masses/payloads to the moving
platform. The proposed modified IRC control methods exhibits improved robustness over
existing approaches, as outlined in this work. Hence this approach permits the good
attenuation of linkage vibration characteristics which change as a result of both dynamic
model uncertainty caused by unknown payloads, and PKM configuration dependent
behavior. Such improvement in the robust performance is very important, and is provided
by our approach. Moreover, the simplicity and performance of the proposed control
110
scheme, compared to the existing robust controllers, makes it a viable solution for
vibration suppression of the configuration-dependent links of the PKMs.
111
Chapter 6
Conclusions and Future Work
6.1. Conclusions
This thesis was focused on the structural dynamic modeling, dynamic stiffness analysis,
and development of an active vibration control system for PKMs with flexible links using
PZT transducers. The contributions achieved in this thesis are summarized as follows:
The complete coupled rigid-body and structural dynamic models of a PKM with
flexible links were developed using extended Hamiltons principle, Lagranges
equations and Assumed Mode Method (AMM). Subsequently, to avoid the
complexities associated with analytical solution of the frequency equation for PKM
links, a set of admissible shape functions were proposed to be used in the AMM. The
proposed admissible shape functions reflected the effects of the mass of the adjacent
structural components (e.g. moving platform, payload) to those of the flexible links.
Specifically, a mass ratio was defined as the ratio of the effective mass of the
moving platform and payload (e.g. spindle/tool) to the mass of the flexible links. The
accuracy of the proposed admissible shape functions was examined by comparing the
natural frequencies calculated from the solution of the frequency equation of the
shape function, with the natural frequencies of the entire PKM obtained from FE
analysis as a function of the mass ratio. Finally, the most accurate shape function was
recommended for a given mass ratio. The methodology developed in this thesis led
to a more accurate and computationally-efficient structural dynamic model for the
generic PKMs with flexible links by incorporating shape functions that take into
account the mass/inertia effects of the adjacent structural components to the PKM
links. The developed model for the PKM with flexible links can be synthesized with
real-time model control design to suppress the unwanted vibrations of the PKM links.
112
An FE-based methodology was developed to estimate the natural frequencies, mode

shapes, and dynamic stiffness of PKM-based machine tools. The developed FE model
utilized the CAD model of the PKM with detailed geometrical features, and was
obtained via a harmonic analysis in software package, ANSYS. Specifically, the
objective of the analysis was to predict the mode shapes and the directional elastic
displacement of the Tool Center Point (TCP) as a result of the excitation of the
structural resonance modes of the PKM-based machine tool due to the exertion of
cutting forces at the TCP. Specific attention in the analysis was on 6-dof PKM-based
machine tools that are kinematically redundant for 5-axis machining. It was shown
that the developed model was able to capture both the configuration-dependent
variations of the dynamic stiffness within the workspace, and the variations of the
dynamic stiffness for a given platform position and orientation due to the redundancy
of the machine tool. The developed FE model was validated via Experimental Modal
Analysis i.e. impact hammer testing of two prototype PKM-based meso-Milling
Machine Tools (mMT) designed and built in the CIMLab at the University of Toronto.
The FE simulations and experiments were performed for multiple joint-space
configurations of the prototypes. Strong configuration-dependent behaviour for the
PKM prototypes was observed in terms of resonance frequencies and TCP
displacement amplitudes, which were represented via Frequency Response Function
(FRF) curves in this analysis. Subsequently, a simplified, and hence more efficient FE
simulation model was also developed for relative estimation of the dynamic stiffness
of a generic PKM for multiple configurations. The developed FE models provided a
basis for comparative analysis of various and/or new PKM architectures for design
improvements from a stiffness point of view. For 6-dof PKMs performing 5-axis
machining, the FE model can potentially provide the input information required to
perform an on-line optimization of the tool path so as to achieve the PKM joint-space
configuration with the highest dynamic stiffness (among infinitely many redundant
joint-space configurations) along the tool path during on-line operation of the
machine tool.
113
Piezoelectric (PZT) actuators and sensors were designed and bonded to the flexible
link of the PKM to suppress the unwanted vibration of the PKM resulting from the
links. An electromechanical modeling methodology was presented in this thesis to
obtain the relationship between the input voltage of the PZT actuators to the output
voltage from the PZT sensors. It was shown that the incorporation of the added mass
and stiffness properties of PZT transducers to those of the link in the
electromechanical model resulted in a more accurate prediction of the resonance
frequencies and mode shape (and mode shape slope) amplitudes of the smart link.
The presented electromechanical model was verified via experiments on a proof-ofconcept cantilever beam with three pair of PZT transducers. Since the resonance
frequencies and mode shape amplitudes of the smart link are directly utilized in the
controller design and synthesis, accurate prediction of these variables through a highfidelity electromechanical modeling approach is of crucial importance. The
developed electromechanical model was subsequently used in the controllability
analysis of the smart link for a set of resonance modes targeted for control. In this
regard, the available literature focused on the implementation of optimization
algorithms on smart cantilever beams to obtain the location (and dimension) of PZT
actuators for which maximized controllability is achieved. In this work, the location
and dimension of the PZT actuators along the link were fixed. Instead, it was shown
that it is possible to achieve a desired controllability by adjusting the mass of moving
platform of the PKM. The methodology was implemented on a proof-of-concept
cantilever beam with a tip mass, where it represented a portion of the moving
platform mass in a PKM. The methodology presented in this chapter provides a basis
for electromechanical modeling for subsequent controller design and synthesis of the
PKMs with flexible links. Also, the controllability analysis and the methodology
presented to adjust its value to the desired one can be utilized in the design of the
moving platform of PKMs with flexible links, for effective vibration suppression of a
set of modes targeted for control. Moreover, the controllability analysis can be used
114
to gain an estimation of the relative control voltages needed for each PZT actuator to
suppress a set of resonance modes of a PKM link.
An active vibration control methodology was designed and implemented on the

flexible links of the PKM to suppress the unwanted structural vibrations of the PKM.
It is known that the structural dynamics of the PKM links undergo configurationdependent variations within the workspace. Therefore, the controller must be robust
in the presence of such configuration-dependent variations. To address this issue,
various model-based robust control techniques methods have been proposed. In this
thesis, a new control scheme based on Integral Resonance Control (IRC) method was
proposed. Specifically, the proposed IRC method is this thesis was modified to
achieve improved robustness over the existing IRC schemes. To examine the
performance of the proposed control scheme, a proof-of-concept cantilever beam with
a variable tip mass was taken to represent the configuration-dependent structural
dynamics of PKM flexible links. The performance of the proposed modified IRC was
examined in terms of (i) robust stability and (ii) vibration attenuation capabilities
using the Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT). Specifically, the configurationdependent dynamics of the proof-of-concept were represented via a number of points
in the Nichols chart for a given frequency to form the plant template. Subsequently,
the loop-shaping in the QFT environment was conducted using the designed modified
IRC method. The QFT analysis results showed that the modified IRC scheme exhibits
improved robustness over the existing IRC methods, making it a simple and viable
approach to suppress the configuration-dependent vibrations of the PKM links. Using
LabVIEW Real-Time module, the proposed IRC scheme was experimentally
implemented on the PKM flexible links on distinct configurations of the PKM.
6.2. Future Work

While this thesis addressed the research issues associated with the structural vibration,
dynamic stiffness, and active vibration control of PKMs, there are still a number of open
115
topics that can be potentially investigated as future research in this area. Below is a brief
discussion on the open research areas in this topic:
With respect to the dynamic stiffness estimation of PKM-based machine tools, it

is well known that the total displacement at the TCP is the resultant contribution
from the (i) structural components such as links, and (ii) the contacting interfaces
such as joint bearings, joint clearances, bolted connections, and actuators. This
thesis was mainly concerned with the structural dynamic modeling of PKMs as a
result of elasticity in the structural components. However, during the
experimental modal analysis of the PKM prototypes, it was noted that the joint
dynamics greatly affects the total stiffness of a PKM at the TCP. Particularly, it
was noted that the resonance modes, and dynamic stiffness of the PKM are
greatly reduced when joint dynamics are taken into account. While the FE model
developed in this thesis takes into account the contact interfaces by using an
equivalent coefficient of friction at the joints, the joint clearances, and joint
stiffness/damping were not incorporated in the analysis. Therefore, as a future
step in the refinement of the FE model, it would be beneficial to incorporate the
joint effects for a more accurate estimation of the dynamic stiffness. However, as
analytical identification of the joint dynamics is typically difficult in general, they
must be obtained through experiments. To this end, various methodologies based
on Component Mode Synthesis can be utilized to obtain the joint parameters via
experiments to be further utilized in the analytical or FE models of the PKM.
As mentioned in Chapter 3, the FE model provides a basis for subsequent path

planning of the tool path. Specifically, for 6-dof PKM based machine tools used
for 5-axis machining, the robot joint-space configuration can be optimized on-line
so as to achieve maximized dynamic stiffness along the tool path. To perform the
on-line optimization, the dynamic stiffness must be estimated via time-efficient
methods. One approach to obtain a time-efficient and yet reliable tool for
estimation of dynamic stiffness is to utilize the dynamic stiffness data obtained
116
from the FE models in training emulators such as Artificial Neural Networks

(ANN). The trained ANN can then be used in the on-line optimization procedure
to achieve the desired robot configuration with the maximized dynamic stiffness.
The methodology proposed to achieve the desired controllability in this thesis

(Chapter 4) was applied on a proof-of-concept cantilever beam with variable tip
mass. The next step would be to implement the controllability analysis on the
flexible PKM links, and examine the effects of the moving platform mass.
Moreover, the variation of the controllability as a function of the PKM joint-space
configuration of the PKM within the workspace can be another interesting topic
to investigate. This topic could be of particular interest in PKM-based machine
tools as 3-dimensional flexible mechanisms, since, one might be interested in
knowing how well, a set of PZT actuators can affect the modes in the Cartesian
direction on the moving platform.
Although the electromechanical model and the controllability analysis was

performed for all three PZT transducer pairs of the smart link, the implementation
of the closed-loop control scheme was only carried on the 1st PZT transducer pair
for vibration suppression. An immediate extension could be to implement the
control scheme on the other 2nd and 3rd PZT transducer pairs to further verify the
control methodology.
In this thesis, to demonstrate the active vibration control methodology, only one
of the PKM links was made to be flexible. In addition, the use of one flexible
smart link with the other two links being as rigid avoided the complications
resulting from the mode coupling from other linkages. This is because the modes
associated with the other two links as significantly higher than the flexible link.
Investigations and experiments with two and three flexible links may be carried
out in future work.
117
In this thesis, to facilitate the implementation of the control scheme, the PZT
transducers were designed so as to achieve a collocated sensor actuator
configuration. Generally, collocated configuration for sensors and actuators yield
minimum phase systems for which better closed-loop characteristics such as
robustness can be achieved. It is well known that the overall objective in vibration
control design of PKM-based machine tools is to reduce the vibration as the TCP.
In other words, regardless of the vibration amplitudes along the flexible links, it is
important to reduce the vibration transmitted to the TCP as much as possible.
Given this discussion, it would be beneficial to design and synthesize control
schemes that can reduce the vibration at the TCP, and not necessarily the link
itself. To this end, the open-loop transfer function from the PZT actuators on the
links to the sensing element on the moving platform (e.g. an accelerometer) must
be obtained. Unlike the collocated case, this transfer function will represent a
non-minimum phase system for which robustness analyses are not as
straightforward as they are for minimum phase systems. Therefore, the
development of vibration suppression controller for non-minimum phase system
that undergoes variations in structural dynamic properties could be an excellent
research area to be investigated.
118
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Appendix A
Partitioned Matrix and Vector Expressions For Structural
Components of the PKM Excluding the Links
Inertia matrix :
(A.1)
Coriolis/centrifugal matrix :
(A.2)
Gravity vector:
138
(A.3)
Appendix B
Partitioned Matrix and Vector Representations for Active and
Passive Joints
Inertia matrix (active coordinates):

(
Stiffness matrix (active coordinates):

[
(B.3)
Jacobian for active coordinates:

(
(B.4)
(B.5)
Jacobian for passive coordinates:
Inertial and gravity forces on active coordinates:

[
(B.2)
Inertia matrix (passive coordinates):
(B.1)
(B.6)
Inertial and gravity forces on passive coordinates:

[
139
(B.7)

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STRUCTURAL DYNAMIC MODELING, DYNAMIC

STIFFNESS, AND ACTIVE VIBRATION CONTROL OF

By: Masih Mahmoodi

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements

Copyright 2014 by Masih Mahmoodi

Structural Dynamic Modeling, Dynamic Stiffness, and Active Vibration

electromechanical model is subsequently utilized in a controllability analysis where it is

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my supervisors,

Thesis Motivation ................................................................................................. 1

Literature Review ................................................................................................. 2

Structural Dynamics of PKMs with Flexible Links ...................................... 2

Dynamic Stiffness of Redundant PKM-Based Machine Tools .................... 5

Electromechanical Modeling and Controllability of Piezoelectrically

Actuated Links of PKMs ............................................................................................. 7

Active Vibration Control of PKMs with Flexible Links ............................ 10

Thesis Objectives ............................................................................................... 12

Thesis Contributions .......................................................................................... 13

Thesis Outline .................................................................................................... 15

Dynamics of the PKM with Elastic Links .......................................................... 17

Modeling of the Elastic Linkages ............................................................... 18

Dynamics of PKM Actuators, Moving Platform, and Spindle/Tool .......... 25

System Dynamic Modeling of the Overall PKM ........................................ 26

Admissible Shape Functions ....................................................................... 30

Numerical Simulations ....................................................................................... 33

Architecture of the PKM-Based mMT ....................................................... 34

The Accuracy of Admissible Shape Functions as a Function of Mass Ratio

of the Platform/Spindle to Those of the Links .......................................................... 37

Structural Vibration Response of the Entire PKM-Based mMT ................ 39

3 Dynamic Stiffness of Redundant PKM-Based Machine Tools ................................... 47

Dynamic Stiffness Definition ............................................................................. 48

Dynamic Stiffness Estimation ............................................................................ 50

Architecture of the Prototype PKMs........................................................... 50

FE-based Calculation of the Dynamic Stiffness ......................................... 51

Experimental Verification of the FE-Based Model .................................... 53

Results and Discussions ..................................................................................... 55

Prototype II and Prototype III ..................................................................... 55

Comparative Analysis of PKM Architectures ............................................ 62

4 Electromechanical Modeling and Controllability of PZT Transducers for PKM Links .

Stepped Beam Model .................................................................................. 68

PZT Actuator Constitutive Equations ......................................................... 72

PZT Sensor Constitutive Equations ............................................................ 73

System Modeling of the Combined Beam and PZT Transducers............... 74

Numerical Simulations and Experimental Validation ........................................ 77

Stepped Beam Model Verification.............................................................. 79

Controllability Analysis as a Function of the Tip Mass ............................. 83

Suppression of PKMs with Flexible Links ....................................................................... 88

System Model ..................................................................................................... 88

Controller Design ............................................................................................... 90

Overview of the Standard Integral Resonant Control (IRC) ...................... 91

Resonance-Shifted IRC ............................................................................... 92

Proposed Modified IRC .............................................................................. 93

Utilization of the IRC-Based Control Schemes in Quantitative Feedback Theory

Vibration Attenuation ................................................................................. 97

Results and Discussions ..................................................................................... 97

Application of the Proposed IRC-Scheme to Vibration Suppression of the

PKM with Flexible Links ........................................................................................ 105

Summary .......................................................................................................... 110

Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 112

Future Work ..................................................................................................... 115

References ....................................................................................................................... 119

FRFxz amplitudes of prototype II for (a) configuration Home, (b)

shapes of prototype II at the dominant frequencies for (a) configuration

FRFxx amplitudes of prototype III for (a) configuration Home, (b)