Project Title:

The Flux Capacitor
(Triangular 3 link Manipulator)

Member Names:

John Vincent
Siddhartha Bulusu
Simon Huang

Brief Project Description:

A triangle is handled by three prismatic links on the same plane, each attached to the vertices. The triangle is free to move in a workspace on x-y plane and rotate for a limited angle

Objectives:

By using three sliders as the prismatic joints on the links, we would like to be able to move the triangle to an arbitrary x-y position within the workspace and rotate it to an arbitrary angle.

Picture:
Uploaded as needed in each entry.

Model, including Jacobian:
Included in some of the entries.

Block Diagram:
Shown in one of the entries.

Control Design:
Shown in one of the entries.

Implementation Notes:

Results:
(MATLAB plots)

Discussion:
Is the triangle in a singularity configuration when it is placed right in the center position with zero rotation? Our proposed answer is yes, because when the triangle is in the middle, a motion can be achieved either by moving one joint while letting the other two joints free to move or by moving two joints simultaneously while letting the other joint free to move. There exists a redundancy in axes. However, we are unsure whether the triangle is in singularity configuration when not in the center position.