Trajectory Tracking Control of Parallel Manipulator Based on Udwadia-Kalaba Approach

There have been many approaches for achieving the trajectory tracking control of parallel manipulator. However, these approaches are complex for calculating Lagrangian multipliers. In this paper, unlike the former approaches, a new approach of trajectory tracking control which is based on Udwadia-Kalaba approach is presented. Using this methodology, we can obtain a concise and explicit equation of motion and consider holonomic and nonholonomic constraint whether it is ideal or nonideal simultaneously. The most important difference is that we divide constraints into structural constraints and performance constraints in this paper. Structural constraints are used to establish dynamic model without regard for trajectory control. And performance constraints are used to represent the desired trajectory. For the parallel manipulator, a nonlinear dynamics system, its constraint forces are obtained by second-order constraints. And the numerical simulation in MATLAB shows the parallel manipulator’s movement meets the requirement; tracking trajectory is exact and perfect. Through this paper, we can see that the method can simplify calculation availably.