No abstract

A rigid-flexible parallel mechanism called 3-RXS mechanism as a neck brace for patients with head drooping symptoms (HDS) is presented. The 3-RXS neck brace has a simple and light structure coupled with good rotation performance, so it can be used to assist the neck to achieve flexion and extension, lateral bend, and axial torsion. Firstly, to prove that the X-shaped compliant joint has a rotational degree of freedom (DoF) and can be used in the 3-RRS spherical parallel mechanism (3-RRS SPM), the six-dimensional compliance matrix, axis drift, and DoF of the X-shaped compliant joint have been systematically calculated. Secondly, the 3-RXS mechanism and its pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM) are obtained by replacing the revolute pair with the X-shaped compliant joint in the 3-RRS SPM. The rotation workspace of the 3-RXS mechanism is also performed. Finally, to verify the rotation function and effect of 3-RXS mechanism for neck-assisted rehabilitation, the kinematics simulations of the 3-RXS and 3-RRS mechanisms are carried out and compared with the theoretical result, and a primary experiment for rotation measurement of 3-RXS mechanism prototype is carried out. All results prove the feasibility of the 3-RXS mechanism for a neck brace.

Traditional methods and theories on synthesizing parallel mechanisms are not applicable to related researches on hybrid mechanisms, thus hampering the design of innovative coupled mechanisms. Polyhedrons with attractive appearance and particular geometrical construction provide many choices for coupled inventions. A novel mechanism with one translational degree of freedom based on a regular triangular bipyramid is proposed in this article. First, the basic equivalent geometrical model is spliced with new-designed components substituting for vertexes and edges by revolution joints (R-pairs) only. The expected motion for the basic coupled model can be achieved by adding links to modify the constraint sets and arrange spatial allocation of an elementary loop based on the screw theory. Then, the mobility of one branch is calculated to investigate the movability of the novel structure, and a Denavit–Hartenberg (D-H) model with properties of symmetry is implemented to investigate the inverse kinematic analysis. Furthermore, a numerical example is given to verify the correctness of analysis results and related motion simulation is conducted to illustrate the potential application of the proposed novel system as an executing manipulator for mobile robots.

The paper studies the characterization and evaluation technology of rotation accuracy of hydrostatic spindle under the influence of unbalance. The dynamic model of the motion error of the hydrostatic spindle is established based on the dynamic parameters. The variation law of motion error of spindle rotor is analyzed under the unbalanced mass. The paper finds that with the increase of the spindle speed, the amplitude of the spindle error motion will increase, and the inclination angle θ error is more sensitive to the change in the rotational speed. In the total synthesis accuracy, the proportion of synchronization error decreases with the increase of the rotational speed. Finally, the least squares evaluation algorithm is used to evaluate the rotation error of the hydrostatic spindle, and a method for evaluating the rotation accuracy of the hydrostatic spindle with high calculation accuracy and calculation efficiency is proposed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose the pressure fluctuation to further evaluate and predict the dynamic and static characteristics of the aerostatic slider and improve the calculation accuracy of the aerostatic slider. Design/methodology/approach First-order velocity slip is introduced into the traditional gas-film fluid equation, and the numerical analysis method is used to solve the static performance of the aerostatic slider. The finite element analysis method is used to solve its dynamic characteristics. Findings It can be concluded from the simulation and experimental results that the model considering the velocity slip in the gas film flow is more accurate. The errors between the modal detection results and the vibration detection results (0.8%–5.8%) under speed slip are smaller than the traditional cases (23.7%–210%), which also verifies the correctness of the above conclusions. Originality/value In this paper, the method of simulation and experiment is used to prove that the first-order velocity slip model is more suitable to predict the dynamic response of the aerostatic slider than the condition without slip. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-02-2020-0059/