Performance of an IMU-Based Sensor Concept for Solving the Direct Kinematics Problem of the Stewart-Gough Platform

The direct kinematics problem of the Stewart-Gough platform can be solved by measuring the manipulator platform's orientation and two of the linear actuators' orientations instead of the six linear actuators' lengths. In this paper, the effect of measurement errors on the calculated manipulator platform's pose is investigated using the Cramer-Ran lower bound and extensive experiments on a state-of-the-art Stewart-Gough platform. Furthermore, different algorithms and filters for one-time as well as continuous pose determinations are investigated. Finally, possible sensor fusion concepts for the one-time pose determination are presented to increase the robustness against noise and measurement errors.