The Design of a Novel Prismatic Drive for a Three-DOF Parallel-Kinematics Machine

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel prismatic drive based on Slide-O-Cam, optimized for use in a three-DOF parallel robot, offering reduced friction and improved performance for machining applications.

Contribution

It presents the design and optimization of a new cam-based prismatic drive specifically for parallel-kinematics machines, enhancing their efficiency.

Findings

Reduced friction compared to traditional rack-and-pinions

Effective replacement of ball-screws in Orthoglide

Potential for improved machining performance

Abstract

The design of a novel prismatic drive is reported in this paper. This transmission is based on Slide-O-Cam, a cam mechanism with multiple rollers mounted on a common translating follower. The design of Slide-O-Cam was reported elsewhere. This drive thus provides pure-rolling motion, thereby reducing the friction of rack-and-pinions and linear drives. Such properties can be used to design new transmissions for parallel-kinematics machines. In this paper, this transmission is optimized to replace ball-screws in Orthoglide, a three-DOF parallel robot optimized for machining applications.