Spatial parallel mechanisms with large orientational capabilities - market assessment

本提案旨在申请资金，以完成拉瓦尔大学机器人实验室开发的一项新技术的市场研究。该技术涉及一种新颖的机器人平台架构，该平台允许移动具有六个自由度（平移和旋转）的有效载荷，具有较大的方向运动范围，并且使用仅受轴向载荷影响的腿。现有平台的方向运动范围有限（例如，倾斜正负45度），或者使用的结构会导致驱动腿弯曲，这就排除了非常大的有效载荷的应用。提出的技术的潜在应用领域包括（但不限于）：1)车辆运动模拟，2)娱乐运动系统和3)机器人技术。完全平行飞行模拟器可以从所提议的技术提供的大范围定向中大大受益，例如在军事模拟器中，其飞行条件比商用飞机要求高得多。此外，需要大横向加速度的地面车辆模拟器（例如汽车模拟器）可以通过利用旋转能力来模拟横向加速度，从而大大受益于所提出的技术。具有高动态范围和大吞吐量（用户/小时）的娱乐系统构成了所提出的机制架构的有前途的应用。在机器人和机床领域，6自由度并联机器人由于其定向工作空间相当有限而不是很常见。由于它可以提供大的定向工作空间，因此所提出的技术具有极大扩展并联机构在工业中的应用范围的潜力。拟议的市场研究将调查上述及其他应用领域，以便更了解拟议技术的商业潜力，并就其进一步发展的相关性（例如通过I2I第一期项目）提供意见。

This proposal is to request funding to complete a market study for a novel technology developed in the Robotics Laboratory at Laval University. The technology concerns a novel architecture of robotic platform that allows to move a payload with six degrees of freedom (translations and rotations) with large orientational ranges of motion and using legs that are subjected to only axial loads. Existing platforms have either limited ranges of orientational motion (for example plus or minus 45 degrees in tilt) or make use of architectures that induce bending in the actuating legs, which precludes applications with very large payloads. The potential areas of application of the proposed technology include (but are not limited to): 1) vehicle motion simulation, 2) entertainment motion systems and 3) robotics. Fully parallel flight simulators could greatly benefit from large ranges of orientation provided by the proposed technology, for example in military simulators, where the flight conditions are much more demanding than for commercial aircraft. Also, terrestrial vehicle simulators (e.g. automotive simulators), which require large lateral accelerations, could greatly benefit from the proposed technology by exploiting the rotational capabilities to emulate the lateral accelerations. Entertainment systems, with high dynamic ranges and large throughput (users/hour) constitute a promising application of the proposed architecture of mechanisms. In the area of robotics and machine tools, parallel robots with 6 degrees of freedom are not very common because of their rather limited orientational workspace. Because it can provide large orientational workspace, the proposed technology has the potential to greatly extend the range of applications of parallel mechanisms in industry. The above fields of application and others will be investigated in the proposed market study in order to better understand the commercial potential of the proposed technology and to advise on the relevance of its further development, for example through an I2I Phase I project.