Kinematic Modeling and Prototype Development of a Six Degrees-of-Freedom Stewart Platform

This paper presents kinematic modeling, control system design, and hardware-software systems development of a Stewart platform prototype. The modeling part of the platform includes both forward and inverse kinematics analyses which were then used to design a controller that can regulate the platform’s movement between some desired initial and final positions. Hardware components of the platform were constructed and then integrated with software suites that are developed in NI LabVIEW software for real-time experimental use. Simulation and experimental results are reported to illustrate the performance of the developed platform prototype.